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003

2
prosperity: some times deprived of political rights, at others subjected to relentless persecution by the civil courts, and now they are struggling in an unequal fight with capital.

Within a short time most of the large tobacco manufacturers of Richmond have reduced the wages of their operatives fifty per cent, and are substituting women in the places of the men whom they are discharging. It is thought that this action on the part of the manufacturer is a political measure; whether this be so or not, the effect causes no little uneasiness among the freedmen not only in a political sense; for being denied work suffering must soon follow. I am informed by some of the most experienced workers of tobacco, that from four to seven dollars per week is the amount now earned by tobacco operatives in Richmond; last year these operatives were able to earn from nine to fifteen dollars per week: so frightful a reduction of wages to these hard working

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-24 16:52:24 changed "rebut these" to "relentless"