Viewing page 125 of 232

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

1067

2

look very promising and a fair yield anticipated; in other sections the land is almost barren of agricultural enterprise; in fact whole plantations are deserted even the houses thereon are tenantless a general inactiveness seems to prevail. The freedmen receive but small wages for their services yet manage to support their families many of whom are in comfortable circumstances and owners of homesteads. In the county of Chesterfield the prospects of the freedpeople are less encouraging, unproductive soil which extends over a large portion of the county, heavy rents, taxes and political oppression completely rob the colored man of his hard earnings and disputes his right to enjoy what Congress intended for him, the blessings of freedom. Many of the whites of this county absolutely ignore their indebtedness to freedmen; numbers of the latter continue to labor month after month upon the strength of unfaithful promises to pay and when at the expiration of his or their aggreement the hard working freedmen expects to receive a handsome sum he finds that his employer has cut and dried an account which although clothed with

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-23 16:59:17