Mar 28, 2019 - Sale 2503

Sale 2503 - Lot 88

Price Realized: $ 1,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
"I HAVE WHIPPED THEM & THEY LAUGHED AT ME" (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Scott, Ella H. A Confederate officer's wife describes her efforts to run the plantation. Autograph Letter Signed to husband Lieutenant John W. Scott of the 30th Virginia Volunteers in Richmond. 4 pages, 10 x 8 inches, on one folding sheet, with stamped address panel on final page; dampstaining and separations along two folds, moderate wear. Hard Bargain Plantation [Penola, Caroline County, VA], 28 January 1864

Additional Details

A Confederate wife describes her efforts to run the plantation in the absence of her soldier husband. She offers a detailed summary of the house servants, adding that "I have the largest of the chaps picking cotton & I have words with them almost every day. Today I made Joe whip three of them. I have whipped them & they laughed at me, so I thought I wouldn't wear out my strength on them." Sometimes open mockery is the best resistance. On a plantation fairly close to Maryland and the Union lines, the grip of slavery must have felt tenuous by 1864.