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The farmers cannot afford to pay such wages: but they get enough to live on comfortable, and avarage from $5. to $10. per month for men, and from $2. to $5. for women - children getting their victuals and clothes and, sometimes, a little money.

Not a very large number have started to farm for themselves, and those who have done so are generally well prepared for it- But the tendency in this direction is increasing and I fear, by next year, many will become farmers who are totally unprepared for being such - an evil very much to be dreaded-

Though there is comparatively little money in the county I believe the greater part of this little passes through the hands of the Freedmen, and they are the best patrons the county store keepers have. They get it in a variety of ways- such as their labor in the field, by fishing, and by raising garden vegitables, fowls, and pigs- 

A good state of feeling towards the Whites exists in the minds of most of the resident Freedmen - embracing all of the better class - but from rumors I have heard and from certain papers I have seen in the hands of Blacks from Norfolk and elsewhere, it is my impression that an erroneous opinion exists outside of the county in regard to the animus of our White citizens towards their former slaves- If not stated in words it is, at least, implied that there is difficulty and even danger in their getting justice, and even in their passing through the county- It is an opinion that has no foundation, for any one, white or black, who behaves in a proper manner can pass and repass through it's limits in every direction 

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