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Bureau R.F. and A.L.
Hd Qrs. 4 Div 5 Sub. Dist Va.
Eastville Va. Sept. 26, 1868

Bv't Brig Genl. O. Brown
Asst Comr Dist Va.

Sir

Pursuant to circular No. 6, S. 1866 Hd. Qrs. Asst. Comr. Va. I have the honor to report on the "condition of Bureau affairs"

During the present month, the freedmen are generally engaged in the field gathering and curing forage. There is a great demand for labor and all seem to be imployed.  Wages by the day are fare, but by the month are low, and rents are very high, unreasonable, exorbitant and oppressive.

These high rents for houses and small lots of land are kept up by the land monopoly which is controlled by those who once considered themselves the aristocracy.  And there seems to be a combined determination to continue the same rates, prefering that their houses shall be unoccupied and their land untilled rather than loose the control they now have over the poor and helpless.  These high rates of rent may