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to take the trouble to explain the nature and obligations of the parties, according to the contract or agreement between them- and in a number of instances which have come under my observation I have found that where the freedmen comprehended clearly what was required of them that they were more disposed to fulfill their obligations to the letter than the white man was - 

The anxiety manifested by the freedmen to secure honorable & permanent employment, their solicitude for their families and general desire to procure permanent homes in connection with the fact that they are gradually awakening to a sense of their own individual responsibility and the consequent conviction, that their own advancement is dependent upon their own individual exertion certainly indicate that they are capable of becoming a thrifty and industrious population- The greatest obstacle in the way of their advancement is the absence of good

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