?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION--MOUNT VERNON.) WASHINGTON, JOHN AUGUSTINE. An excellent letter from John Washington to his mother, mentioning his health, West Ford, and affairs at Mt. Vernon [with] a note added at the end from A. M. Alexander Washington 'Dearest Mother. . .' Single folio leaf, folded to form four pages, written on three sides with integral address to Mrs. Jane C Washington, Blakeley. Mt. Vernon, December 13, 1841
Washington writes to his mother saying that "Owing to the coldness of the house at Mrs Selden's, I had a chill on the day we stayed there and being so situated that I could not take any efficient means to prevent their recurrence, they continued until our arrival here, when they were arrested without any difficulty, and I have not suffered since." He complains that "West had scarcely sold any wood and that there were several bills which I had supposed to be paid which were not, and that wood had suddenly fallen a dollar a cord in the district, and is sold without difficulty." He says that given the situation at Mt Vernon, he had better stay and straighten things out, rather than returning to Jefferson. He discusses the slave girl Betty discussed in another letter "Withregard to Betty, I think that as Cousin Jane by offering to give her up, led us to make our arrangements upon that expectation, and with that full and entire understanding to both parties, it would be most unreasonable in her to expect us to change our plans at this late date even if you at first promised to let her have the girl longer than a year." A good letter with insight into the relationships between the servants and the family, and some understanding of John Augustine's fragile health.
