“if you Should think a nuff of me to right me…”

Enslaved and formerly enslaved people searched for family members from whom they had been separated via every means available to them. They sent word through the grapevine telegraph, their secret communication network; addressed themselves to government officials; and advertised in newspapers. They also wrote letters to their enslavers and former enslavers. This exhibit explores ten letters in which enslaved and formerly enslaved people sought information about family and kin and examines the mix of emotions they expressed as they addressed people who were responsible for sending away—or sent them away from—their loved ones.

When freed people wrote former enslavers to inquire about buying a wife or child, they confronted the institution of slavery on slaveholders’ terms. It meant trusting the word of someone who had not earned their trust. Sometimes these appeals went directly to their loved one’s enslaver; other times these pleas were made through an intermediary.

Sometimes freed people didn’t ask for the release of a family member but rather demanded it.

Enslaved and freed people recruited allies to help them write letters and locate family members. Correspondents expected family and kin to help, but white help had to be recruited, white egos flattered.

Still enslaved or recently escaped people took risks when they wrote letters inquiring about family members, as helping enslaved people escape was a violation of federal law. Many state laws mandated that freed people leave the state or pay a fee to remain.

With the backing of 1,600 armed US soldiers, the tone of Spottswood Rice’s letter seeking the release of his children was a forceful assertion of his status as a free man, soldier, and father. Like others presented here, it reminds us of the power of taking pen in hand to declare one’s intentions. Writing a letter—or dictating it—allowed enslaved people emerging into freedom to express a sense of their own power and autonomy.

Sometimes, in the act of addressing themselves to their former enslavers, freed people found themselves once again confronting the unequal power dynamics of slavery. They remained painfully aware that their former enslavers still held on to critical information about where family members were sold, birth dates, and other details. To get these details, correspondents employed the deferential language that had allowed them to survive slavery.

Enslaved and formerly enslaved people referenced their shared Christianity as a way of recruiting the help of former enslavers, the same people who had once used religion as a means of enforcing obedience. Christianity gave enslaved people a sense of self-worth, autonomy, and resistance.

Whereas slaveholders insisted that enslaved people did not love as deeply or suffer loss the same as did whites, the letters in this exhibit document the anguish enslaved people felt when they lost loved ones. Each one evokes the authors’ sense of loneliness and longing, the desire for connection.

Citations

Fannie to Norfleet Perry. December 28, 1862. Person Family Papers, 1754-1971. Box 1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.  https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/personfamily . Fanny to “Sister.” August 5, 1867. Slade Family Papers, Correspondence, general, 1857-1873. Box 3. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.  https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/sladefamily_aspace_b425eb8a8f1f965adbccfdd76a3dcb51 . Frank Marten to Colonel Joseph Perkins, Esq. 1874. “Frank Marten to Colonel Joseph Perkins, letter, 1874.” Fluvanna Historical Society. Jack Hannibal to “Mistress.” August 9, 1878. Jack Hannibal Papers, 1878. Sec. A Box 58, items 1 c.1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.  https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE002567178.  Rody Jordan to Pearce Stephens. March 26, 1860. Alexander H. Stephens Papers, Correspondence, 1860 Jan-Aug, letter 52. Digital Collections of David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.  https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r3tb0z45g . Sarah “Sally” Norral to Emma Mordecai. November 23, 1867. Jacob Mordecai Papers, 1784-1936. Box 6, c.1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.  https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/mordecaijacob . Spotswood Rice to Kitty Diggs. September 3, 1864. Enclosed in F. W. Diggs to Genl. Rosecrans, 10 Sept. 1864, D-296 1864, Letters Received, series 2593. Department of the Missouri, U.S. Army Continental Commands. Record Group 393 Pt. 1, stack area 10W2:5/5/2. Box 13. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Thomas Berry, to an unknown person. February 28, 1831. American Slavery Documents, Digital Collections, John Hope Franklin Research Center, Duke University.  https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4dv1d44g . Thomas Right-So to John Walker. November-December 1850. Richard H. Riddick Papers, Thomas Rightso case materials, 1850-1851. Box 1, c.1. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University. https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/riddickrichard_aspace_d39492ae194552b5001d3b3f8de8cffe. Vilet Lester to Patsey Patterson. August 29, 1857. Joseph Allred Papers. The Digital Scriptorium, Special Collections Library, Duke University.  https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/lester/lester.html .