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Where this course carried out it would virtually stop the freedman from moving at all; he being in nearly all cases entirely unprovided with the means of securing a habitation elsewhere. Many and urgent protests have been entered against such procedure, and extended and vexatious litigation must follow unless some definite line of conduct is established. The Freedmens Court for this County has heretofore ordered, that in cases where the houses or improvements (fencing excepted) of Freed people have been erected by the latter, and are made up from timber or materials not taken from the land but procured elsewhere,- the lessee shall be permitted to remove said house or improvements, on vacating the land at expiration of lease;- provided all just claims for rent due owner have been paid. 

Great dissatisfaction exists, even under this decision, and it would seem not unreasonably, in view of the fact that very many of the houses now owned by freed people were built from material found on the land at a time when it was not in the possession of the original owner, but held by the Government, whose authorized agents placed the freed people on the land and empowered them to use the timber there found for building and other necessary purposes. Having availed themselves of this privilege and erected such small cabins as their means allowed, by their own labor; and having held them as their undisputed property for several years, their sudden ejectment from and dispossession of their homes, 

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-10 14:34:33