Viewing page 103 of 236

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

0809

2
The result of this general depression in business has culminated in general suffering among the people of all classes, but of the 28 tobacco factories in Richmond but 4 are now in operation. This is a great disappointment and grevious embarrassment to hundreds of willing hands now unemployed. The public press of Richmond with the exception of a single paper has taken advantage of this general depression in business and while universal suffering prevails charge the Freedpeople with laziness. In justice to the Freedmen as a class I will state that since the promulgation of your notice informing farmers and others that the Bureau was ready to furnish them with colored labor on giving satisfactory proof that the employee would receive kind treatment and reasonable remuneration for his and their services.

No one complying with the above instructions has failed to receive any number of hands. In one instance fifty able bodied 

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-23 00:40:43 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-23 02:43:50 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-23 09:09:53 added NARA#