to her cousin
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09375 Author/Creator: Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 22 August 1871 Pagination: 4 p. Order a Copy
Alabama woman writes to her cousin in Michigan about family news and her mother's illness, and how life has changed since Emancipation: "It does not seem possible that I could go through the same amount of labor and endure the anxiety and suspense of the past two months again. But one has not the most distant idea of what they can perform until circumstances forces them to exertion. Until our servants were freed, I was considered entirely too delicate to perform any kind of household work. And had any one told me that I could, or would in a few years, perform the entire work that was then assigned to two or three grown servants, I would certainly have thought them demented. But such is really the case.… Crops are splendid, where they were well cultivated; a great many freedmen have very indifferent crops, but owing entirely to neglect."
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