Sep 28, 2023 - Sale 2646

Sale 2646 - Lot 272

Price Realized: $ 1,625
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(TRAVEL.) Helen M. White. Final letter of a missionary to Africa, with related papers. Contemporary manuscript copy of a letter to brother John Dunlap Wells. 28 manuscript pages. 4to, 8 x 6 1/4 inches, original plain wrappers titled "Mrs. White's last letter to her brother," minor wear; vertical fold. Fair Hope, Las Palmas [Liberia], 4 January 1837
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Additional Details

Helen Maria Wells (1813-1837) was raised in Oneida County, NY. She married the Rev. David White in October 1836 in Newburgh, NY; they soon embarked as missionaries to Cape Palmas, West Africa, arriving on Christmas 1836. Included is a contemporary manuscript transcript of her long last letter home to her brother, which she began on 4 January 1837 and never finished. She and her husband both died of fever in late January 1837. Cape Palmas was the central settlement of the colony which was soon named "Maryland in Africa" in 1841, and was then annexed as the eastern part of Liberia in 1857.

Mrs. White pronounces: "I do not think there can be a more delightful spot in the world than the one that is now our home," noting her view of "the little island where the natives bury their dead" and "a beautiful salt lake." Regarding the local Africans: "We find them dark and benighted, their minds blinded by ignorance & superstition, and our hearts bleed for them." Her husband went "down to Cavally, a place about 20 miles from here, to see the king who came up the other day to see them. They went in a little canoe by sea with 5 or 6 natives for oarsmen." She teaches a school with 21 students: "They hear the ringing of the bell with perfect delight. . . . They can almost all of them read and spell quite well." She describes King Baphso of nearby Cavala as "one of the most muscular men I ever saw, very tall and large, and has the most malignant countenance I ever saw." She describes an armed conflict between the coastal Africans and the "bushmen" over disputed rice fields: "They had taken three bushmen prisoners. . . . The men were armed with guns and spears, which glistened in the sun. . . . They concluded the rejoicing by spending the night in drumming and dancing, much to my annoyance, and not a little to my terror." She dismisses fears of the fever which killed many missionaries: "It seldom proves fatal to a person whose mind is perfectly calm and composed." She describes her plans to adopt "a most beautiful little native girl," and documents the onset of the fever which soon led to her death.

Also included is a copy of the 15 August 1836 letter recruiting Rev. White to Las Palmas. He was at that time at Princeton Theological Seminary. It consists of 12 disbound quarto pages, and is incomplete, lacking the final leaf.

Finally, Helen's 18-page manuscript diary with sporadic entries from 1831 to 1835, kept as a young woman before her marriage. Its content is almost entirely religious, including her signed 18 January 1835 pledge to embark on the missionary field.

Provenance: her brother the Rev. John Dunlap Wells (1815-1903); his great-granddaughter Dorothy Post Hubert Jones (1918-2021); her estate sale (see Swann's 29 September 2022 Americana sale for two related lots).