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Office Asst. Supt. of Freedmen
Surry C.H. Va May 31st 1866

Col. O. Brown
Asst. Com. State of Va
Colonel
  I obedience to instructions received from your office directing Asst. Superintendents of the Freedmen's Bureau to make report of now the recent order transferring criminal cases from the jurisdiction of the Bureau to the civil authorities, effects the interests of the Freedpeople I have the honor to make the following report for the county of Surry.
   Having only been in the county during the past month my experience extends no further back, but for this period I  can say that I have seen no evil effects [[?]] from it. Certainly it has not been used as a means of oppression the blacks, for there is not at present one of them in the county jail, and, in the whole thirty days, but one was placed in is, and he on the very well established fact of his having stolen a horses from another Freedmen. But the same night that he was imprisoned he was unlawfully set free again, and I believe by those of his own color.
   Two  cases of assault and battery