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Louisa C.H. Nov 19th 1865

Dear Sir,
I am the owner of a farm & have had about 50 negros that I have purchased & raised from the pieces of my individual labor & creation. Since the fall of Richmond most of them have stayed with me & I have kept the chargeable ones & offered to do so as a matter of charity until Christmas; & at the same time to pay wages to those who were able to earn anything besides a support. On the 30th August a man named Jo, who has a wife & 6 children here, one of them born a short time only before he left, went to Richmond by permission to visit his daughter, promising to return in a few days & has not yet come. His wife laid up & kept her bed & room for Three months & only one of her children able to do anything- She required a good deal of medical attention (I and my son are both practicing physicians). I have heard that the said Jo is yet in Richmond leading a dissolute life and I think he ought to be attended to by you.

I wish to say a word on another subject. I wish to employ some labor for the year 1866 - have offered liberal wages to negros, but they all seem unwilling to contract to work another year. They are still evidently laboring under their old delusion that the Government will at the end of this or the beginning of next year distribute among them, lands, provisions, horse, & other property.   

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