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Office of Asst. Supt. R.F.& A.L.
Tappahannock, Essex Co. Va.
February 24, 1866.

Capt. T.F. Crandon
A.Q.M.& Supt. 4th Dist. Va.

Captain:
I have the honor to forward through your office to the H'd. Qrs. of the Asst. Commissioner, the following report showing the condition of Bureau affairs in this Sub District.

There is employment enough for all the Freedmen in this Dist. but there are two or three hundred of the Freedmen engaged in fishing and oystering and in consequence of which the farmers are obliged to go aboard for laborers, and those Freedmen that are oystering will be out of employment by the first of April; they rent small cabins by the river side and are paying exorbatant rents for them, ranging from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five Dollars a year, they pay it for the sake of being near the river; the Freedmen have complained to me about their having to pay such high rents but I know of no way to stop it, the white people will take advantage of them.

In regard to Contracts, the people will not come to me and have a contract executed and filed in this office:  before I came to this District they were in the habit of going to a lawyer and get the contract

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-20 17:22:12 Corrections and added missing text