(SLAVERY ABOLITION) Thomas Affleck A plantation owners atte

Sale 2631 - Lot 70

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(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Thomas Affleck. A plantation owner's attempt to set up slave patrols in the last days of Confederate Texas. Autograph Letter Signed to Confederate General John B. Magruder, commander of the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. One page, 11 x 8 1/4 inches; mailing folds, minimal wear, no postal markings. Glenblythe Plantation, Washington County, TX, 18 May 1865

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This letter dates from the last weeks of the last Confederate army in Texas, between Lee's surrender back in Virginia, and the arrival of Juneteenth. Here, a major plantation owner writes to the Confederate military leader. He starts by commiserating: "I much fear that the Army cannot be held together. Yet, do not despair. A better feeling may arise amongst them." He then suggests transforming the last remnants of the Army into a slave patrol: "Send out small parties of good & responsible men to police the country on the main traveled routes. . . . Call the attention of slave-holders, through a general order, to the absolute necessity for maintaining a more than usually strict discipline over their Negroes; & authorize scout co's to arrest & the officers to punish, every Negro found at large, & especially at night, without a pass. Already the Negroes begin to consult together!" Fifteen days later, Magruder surrendered, and the order freeing the last enslaved people of the Confederacy came on June 19.