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to visit. I have found the negros peaceful, sober and industrious, if only immolested by the whites.
and I believe they intend to do right and duly appreciate the interest of the Bureau; and what as far as so ignorant a people can comprehend, the Bureau is doing for them.

There is a bitter hatred among nearly all the whites toward the Freedmens Bureau, and for the reason "that this Bureau is fast enlightening these negros and pointing a sure way for them to take care of themselves. This the whites dislike for the reason they will not in time, be able to control their actions as they will. They have a most decided way of showing their dislike, still at the same time they before the officers try to convey a different opinion. The idea of those who have large farms, and formerly large owners of the negro, is to drive the Bureau out, and then under the laws of Virginia apprentice them for vagrancy, when found out of work, (and they will be sure not to give them work so they can apprentice them) and such apprenticeship would be full as bad as their old condition from which they have just escaped. It is my opinion that should the Bureau be closed, the Freedmen would be in a worse state