Considered the Burow a inkubus upon the State. It interfered between
master and servant. Cood git along better ef the nigger wuz left to the
nateral laws wich regulates capital and labor. Tried to keep his
niggers, and did keep em the past summer till after the crop wuz in, and
then tried to settle with em for four dollars a month, with sich
deductions for food, sickness, and brakin tools, et settry, ez wuz just.
Brought the niggers, all uv em, in my debt, and generously proposed to
let em work it out choppin cord wood doorin the winter. Hauled me up
afore the Burow, and wuz forst to pay em each $15 per month. Consider
the Burow ez all that stands in the way uv rekonstruction, though the
removal uv the Ablishun Postmaster at the Corners and the appintment uv
a sound constooshnel Dimekrat wood grately assist in conciliatin the
Kentucky mind.
I tried to get some nigger testimony, but cood elicit nothing worth
while. One nigger, who spends the heft uv his time at the Corners, wuz
opposed to the Burow becoz it stopt rations on him. And Lucy, a
octoroon, who formerly belonged to, and still resides with, Elder Gavitt
(who is now absent ez a delegate to a Southern religious convention at
Louisville), testified that the Burow "wuz no grate shakes," becoz bein
ez the Elder wuz a widower, and the father uv all her children, and bein
she's a free woman, she askt the agent to make the Elder marry her, and
he woodn't do it. But sich evidence is irrelevant, and I didn't consider
it worth while botherin yoor Eggslency with it. Both, however, strongly
insisted on the removal uv the Ablishun Postmaster at the Corners.