Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent at Selma, Alabama, to an Alabama Justice of the Peace

Selma [Ala.]  July 30^[th] 1866

Dear Sir:  The bearer Cha^s Hardy makes complaint against Thomas Hardy of an assault under the following circumstances.

Hardy had whipped his boy three times although in the contract it was agreed that the freedmen should correct their own children.

On the day of the assault Chas took his boy to the field with him so that he could make him work under his own eye

Hardy came to him and asked what he took the boy with him for.  He said that he whipped the boy so much he thought he would take him along with him where he could make him work without so much beating

Hardy said he would whip the boy as much as he pleased   Cha^s said no you wont or words to that effect

Hardy then struck Cha^s over the head with his gun laying the skull bare and rendering him insensible for some time

I trust you will give the case due attention, both to secure the redress that is proper for the assault and also to provide that the crop from which the complainant'^s wages are to be paid, may be made available said crop being what he has cultivated every saturday. and his only pay for labor

S. S. Gardner