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0432

2d Page

of wages and the cost of provisions & clothing are not in keeping with each other. The Whites, however, complain that they cannot afford to pay the Freedmen any higher rates of wages or even as much as heretofore, that the amount of labor that they render will not warrent it. True, very many of the Freedmen do not put forth the efforts they are capable of or exert themselves as more intelligent people would do toward gaining a subsistence and acquiring property, but they receive from the Whites no encouragement to do so, to the contrary, however, everything to discourage & dishearten them from trying to labor for them, owing to the [[?]] & unfairness used by the Whites in their dealings with them (the Freedmen). The average rate of wages received by Freedmen is about one hundred (100) dollars per annum for good farm hands, inferior ones proportionately less. Females [[strikethrough]] hands [[/strikethrough]] for out-hands or house servants receive from two to five dollars per month. These amounts, at the high prices of every article of merchandise, go but a little way. When the time comes that these people can receive proper encouragement from the Whites, or rather when they can have a good State government and are guaranteed full & impartial