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Bureau Refugees Freedmen & A.L.
Sub District of Hanover
Ashland Va May 31st 1866

Lieut. H.S. Merrell
Supt 5th Dist

Lieut
In compliance with circular No. 6 from Hd. Qrs Asst. Comr. Va dated January 29th 1866, I have the honor to report that during the past month there has been but little difficulty in this Sub district, between the whites and Freedmen. Some trouble and disputes have arisen about contracts, the Freedmen claiming that the contracts were not read to them in good faith. The whites claiming that they were read exactly as they appeared on the paper. I have generally settled these cases by having the parties before me and advising them to settle the difficulty by mutual consessions, this advice is generally adopted. When it is not, the case is settled by the Freedmens Court; this trouble is mainly due to the efforts of bad whites who, after being unable to procure laborers to live with them, wish to injure their neighbors or destroy the system by tampering with the Freedmen and causing them to be dissatisfied. Almost every case of this kind

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