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III

they get along better, and make much more now on their lands, than while the negroes were slaves; but here the richer class of Farmers interpose, and say that the former must certainly lie; that their own lands are running waste, because they cannot get sufficient hands to cultivate them, and the few they do get will not work; &c. In my opinion, these latter arguments were base subterfuges, deliberately resorted to, soly to conceal the true facts. Under any circumstances, the negro here still continues to constitute the chief means of revenue. Entirely remove him, and nearly all husbandry at least, at once falls prostrate.

The great deficiency, and the one great desideratum in my Sub District, at present, is that of schools, for the freedpeople most particularly; and when I say this, I do not mean such schools as the one hereinbefore made mention of as having just been interrupted, which must, necessarily, from the very limited advantages possessed by its Teacher, really be regarded as being simply primary in its character, if indeed it does not prove ephemeral; but institutions of the kind already established in other localities, capable of diffusing successivelly advancing degrees of knowledge, while at the same time asserting a wholesome, moral control over the minds of the pupils.

In a special Report, of date October 15 1866, addressed to Capt R.S. Lacey, Supt. 7" Dist Va., in reply to Circular No. 23, Series 1866, Hd. Qts. Asst. Comm. Shay Va., on the subject of schools, I stated that a site for the purpose of erecting a School House had been offered, rent free, on a piece of land about a mile from this place (Rocky Mount) owned by a colored woman living here; and I estimated the cost of erecting such a building as would be required, at about

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