Mar 25, 2021 - Sale 2562

Sale 2562 - Lot 24

Price Realized: $ 2,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Letter discussing a manumitted servant who is "quite uneasy about her free papers." Helen ___ to sister-in-law Mary E. Dorsey of Bunker Hill, Macoupin County, IL. 3 pages, 11 1/4 x 9 inches, plus address panel with faint New Orleans postmark and hand-cancelled "10"; minor wear, a few stray ink marks. Lafayette, LA, 27 September [1844?]
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This letter filled with family news discusses a former family servant: "Do you ever hear from old Mammy often? She and sister keep up a regular correspondence. She always mentions Miss Mary. She seems to be quite uneasy about her free papers, lest she might be cheated out of them in some way. She is constantly harping upon them in her letters. She is coming down after Christmas."

The recipient Mary Allen Buckner Dorsey (1824-1852) married Richard E. Dorsey in Bunker Hill, IL in 1842. Other comments in the letter suggest that it was likely written soon after the birth of her first child Laura in August 1844.