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Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
Office Ass't Sup't Sub-Dis't of Chesterfield County.
Manchester, Va., April 30th 1866.

Lieut. H. S. Merrell
Sup't 3rd Dist. Va.,

Lieutenant:
I have the honor to submit the following report of Bureau affairs in Chesterfield County for the month of April 1866.

I assumed charge of the County pursuant to Special Order. No. 32. Current Series. from your office, on the 3rd inst. Of the present condition of affairs as compared with that of previous months I am able to say but little. From the representations of my predecessor, however, and from conversations with citizens, I am of the opinion that the prospects of the freedmen are gradually improving. As far as I have been able to reach them, I have advised and encouraged them to work, & have endeavored to make them understand that my duty as a Bureau officer was to give them protection - not support. I now have few applicants for rations & those mostly aged persons & cripples. There seems to be a general willingness to labor, but an almost universal scarcity of money. The owners of plantations in the country are disposed to hold them intact, & therefore render themselves unable to pay the laborers their wages monthly - Hence I trace the indisposition of the Freedmen to make contracts for the year. There is considerable complaint from the country on account of the non-payment of wages. This difficulty will be much obviated

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