Stearns, Harrison (fl. 1868) to Mary Jane Ferris Stearns
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC08945.01 Author/Creator: Stearns, Harrison (fl. 1868) Place Written: Oxford, Mississippi Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 16 November 1867 Pagination: 2 p. ; 19.5 x 24.5 cm. Order a Copy
In response to a letter from Mary, the wife of his former master, William F. Stearns, Harrison, a freed slave, offers condolence for William's death and inquires about a gift of land William promised him. Writes in part: "You said something bout conveying my lots to me. I had just write to mass Wiliam a little before his death...he promest to convey to me as soon as he could be satisfied that the laws of Miss. would allow colored people to hold land. Colored people has the same right to hold land as the white people."
Harrison Stearns (fl. 1868) became an alderman and later gave a plot of the land he received for the Methodist Episcopal Church of Oxford. The Burns A.M.E. Church, founded in 1870, survives there today.
William F. Stearns (b. 1817?) was a law professor at Ole Miss born in Vermont. He committed suicide after the Civil War.
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