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Bill of 26$ against him, for rent of the House & Lots, to a Magistrate, who at once issued a "Distress Warrant", against every article of personal property the Freedman had, and another place, about two miles off from Fosters, at the time occupied by his wife & thein children.  The warrant was placed in the hands of Constable "John A Whitlaw," who notwithstanding that the Freedman did not own anything but which was exempt by Law, from Levy, carried away every single article, off of the premises, leaving not even a bed for the man's wife & children to lie on. She having applied to sue, I saw both the Constable & Foster, & succeeded in returning the sale of the articles; although they still held on to them.  Shortly after, I gave a note to the Freedman himself, who had returned, to be given to the Constable, calling his attention to the Law bearing on this matter, & stating that all Foster could do, justly, was to sue for breach of contract. I at the same time told the Freedman, that is they sold, he should at once sue for recovery of articles & damages.  Still, a few days after he returned & informed me that the Constable would not give up the things until he had given his "bond" for the amount of the rent charged, which he was forced to do since he could not possible see his family suffer for the want of a bed, if nothing more. I have advised him not to pay him "bond", & should the case come up for trial again, to appeal to the County Court; & so we will see how that will come out.

I could multiply examples of injustice similar to the foregoing, but will conclude with giving one out of several illustrations of the paucity of knowledge on the part of the Magistrates.

A short time ago a Freedman handed me a copy of a due bill that had been collected for him by a White man, who had retained the money; and also another bill

Transcription Notes:
Left incomplete as I ran out of steam. Completed. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-04-27 20:12:17