Viewing page 37 of 228

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

I have in some instances when Freedmen have complained, [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] of bad Treatment, and when I believed the case might be settled amicably, written a simple request asking the parties against whom the complaint was made to call and see me that the matter might be adjusted. In most instances these requests have been treated with contempt. Some men seize the corn grown in the "Patch" given the Freedmen for his own benefit according to contracts - others again - finding the freedmen without sufficient clothing decline to pay their money but sell them old clothes in lieu thereof. - owing to the frauds practiced upon these poor ignorant people many of them are worse off than they were in the winter of 1865.-

I have seen men who were in a measure quite intelligent and no doubt industrious who had worked during the whole of last year and yet they were actually without clothing sufficient to cover them, to say nothing of its being sufficient to keep them warm.

The civil authorities of the Town of Danville seem kindly disposed towards the freedmen yet popular opinion and public sentiment is so much against equal justice to the freedmen that men are actually afraid to brave it and give justice to the black man. I do not

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-09 19:34:33 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-09 22:57:05