Refer to the passage to answer the following question: "We have been encouraged by government to take up these lands in small tracts, receiving Certificates of the same- we have thus far Taken Sixteen thousand (16000) acres of Land here on This Island. We are ready to pay for this land When Government calls for it and now after What has been done will the good and just government take from us all this right and make us Subject to the will of those who have cheated and Oppressed us for many years God Forbid! We the freedmen of this Island and of the State of South Carolina-Do therefore petition to you as the President of these United States, that some provisions be made by which Every colored man can purchase land. and Hold it as his own..." According to the Freedmen's Committee of Edisto Island, why should the island's land belong to them?

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