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NARA 178 To Major Sumner Commandant at Jackson. Sir I Vicey Tarpley a freedwoman beg leave to make to you the following statement I ask you for justice in the premises. I rented from John Blake a piece of ground for the year 1866 on which I was to put up a plank house build a fence & other improvements all the matterials of which were to be mine at the close of the year; At the commencement of this year, I (who owed Blake nothing) wished to move my property consisting of palings and lumber; to which he Blake objected; but agreed that if I would pay him 8 dollars a month for the use of the land I might rent the property for whatever I could get for it I consented & rented the two rooms in the House for fourteen dollars a month Blake finding that I was likely to get pay for the use of my House & my palings which were around his property & upon it refused to take the rent we had agreed on but repudiated his own contract I demanded of my tenants