A. I suppose, unless it is considered that there is a peace now, they are not due.
THE FREEDMEN.
Q. How do the people of Virginia, secessionists more particularly, feel toward the freedmen?
A. Every one with whom I associate expresses the kindest feelings toward the freedmen. They wish to see them get on in the world, and particularly to take up some occupation for a living, and to turn their hands to some work. I know that efforts have been made among the farmers near where I live to induce them to engage for the year at regular wages.
Q. Do you think there is a willingness on the part of their old masters to give them fair living wages for their labor?
A. I believe it is so; the farmers generally prefer those servants who have been living with them before; I have heard them express their preferences for the men whom they knew, who had lived with them before, and their wish to get them to return to work.
Q. Are you aware of the existence of any combination among the "whites" to keep down the wages of the "blacks?"
A. I am not; I have heard that in several counties the land-owners have met in order to establish a uniform rate of wages, but I never heard, nor do I know of any combination to keep down wages or establish any rule which they did not think fair; the means of paying wages in Virginia are very limited now, and there is a difference of opinion as to how much each person is able to pay.
Q. How do they feel in regard to the education of the blacks? Is there a general willingness to have them educated?
A. Where I am, and have been, the people have exhibited a willingness that the blacks should be educated, and they express an opinion that it would be better for the blacks and better for the whites.