Viewing page 179 of 237

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

They are trying to prevent them from holding meetings of a political nature by threatening to run them off if they attend such meetings. This all grows out of the position which they (the Freedmen) have taken in political issues.
 
There is a great scarcity of provisions throughout this Division, particularly among the poor people, white as well as colored. At no time during the last two & a half years have the freedmen been so "put up" to get even bread, to say nothing of meat, as they are today. Should the crops fail this year starvation will inevitably follow. As yet I have known of no instances of actual starvation, yet, but for their gardens I believe that there would have been. Those who have corn to sell hold it at such high prices, $7 @ $8 dollars per barrel and nothing but 'cash down', that the Freedmen who have it to buy can hardly obtain any.
 
In many instances the Farmers have ceased to advance rations to the Freedmen, that they have employed, for their families, 

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-26 15:10:08