Letters from Black America fills a literary and historical void by presenting the pantheon of African American experience in the most intimate way possible—through the heartfelt correspondence of the men and women who lived through monumental changes and pivotal events, from the 1700s to the twenty-first century, from slavery to the war in Iraq.
The first-ever narrative history of African Americans told through their own letters, this book includes the thoughts of politicians, writers, and entertainers, as well as those of slaves, servicemen, and domestic workers. From a slave who writes to his wife on the eve of being sold to famous documents like Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," these writings illuminate struggles and triumphs, hardships and glory, in the unforgettable words of the participants themselves. Letters from Black America is an indispensable addition to our country's literary tradition, historical understanding, and self-knowledge.
Letters from Black America fills a literary and historical void by presenting the pantheon of African American experience in the most intimate way possible—through the heartfelt correspondence of the men and women who lived through monumental changes and pivotal events, from the 1700s to the twenty-first century, from slavery to the war in Iraq.
The first-ever narrative history of African Americans told through their own letters, this book includes the thoughts of politicians, writers, and entertainers, as well as those of slaves, servicemen, and domestic workers. From a slave who writes to his wife on the eve of being sold to famous documents like Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," these writings illuminate struggles and triumphs, hardships and glory, in the unforgettable words of the participants themselves. Letters from Black America is an indispensable addition to our country's literary tradition, historical understanding, and self-knowledge.
eBookFirst Edition (First Edition)
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Letters from Black America fills a literary and historical void by presenting the pantheon of African American experience in the most intimate way possible—through the heartfelt correspondence of the men and women who lived through monumental changes and pivotal events, from the 1700s to the twenty-first century, from slavery to the war in Iraq.
The first-ever narrative history of African Americans told through their own letters, this book includes the thoughts of politicians, writers, and entertainers, as well as those of slaves, servicemen, and domestic workers. From a slave who writes to his wife on the eve of being sold to famous documents like Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," these writings illuminate struggles and triumphs, hardships and glory, in the unforgettable words of the participants themselves. Letters from Black America is an indispensable addition to our country's literary tradition, historical understanding, and self-knowledge.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781429934831 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Publication date: | 02/03/2009 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 400 |
| File size: | 396 KB |
About the Author
Pamela Newkirk is the editor of A Love No Less and the author of Within the Veil, which won the National Press Club Award for Media Criticism. She is an award-winning journalist and an associate professor of journalism at New York University.
Pamela Newkirk is the editor of A Love No Less and the author of Within the Veil, which won the National Press Club Award for Media Criticism. She is an award-winning journalist and an associate professor of journalism at New York University.
Read an Excerpt
Letters from Black America
By Pamela Newkirk
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Copyright © 2009 Pamela NewkirkAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-3483-1
CHAPTER 1
PART I
Family
F or more than two centuries slavery would test the ability of Africans in the Americas to sustain family ties. Children were sold away from their parents and husbands torn from wives. Many slaves tried in vain to retain bonds with family members dispersed across the country, but their efforts were often undermined by their legally mandated illiteracy, the inability to locate or maintain contact with loved ones, and society's overarching disregard for black family life.
The legacy of slavery, followed by a century of legal segregation and discrimination, still resonates today as African American families are disproportionately beset by high levels of poverty, unemployment, out-of-wedlock births, divorce, and male incarceration. In 1965 The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, a controversial report by U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan, highlighted the growing number of African American female-headed homes and out-of-wedlock births, and an increasing reliance on welfare. According to the report, nearly 23 percent of black homes had absent fathers, compared with 8 percent for whites. While divorce rates for blacks and whites were equal in 1940, by 1964 the rate for blacks was 40 percent higher. Moynihan attributed many of the problems to a legacy of slavery and discrimination, high black unemployment, and inferior education, but also to the destabilization of the black nuclear family and a federal welfare system that eclipsed the role of the black male.
While many civil rights leaders accused Moynihan of blaming the victim, the findings in the widely condemned report would compare favorably with the portrait of the black family at the dawn of the twenty-first century, when some 70 percent of black children are born out of wedlock, compared with 23 percent in 1964. And while nearly 80 percent of black families were headed by married couples in 1950, only 48 percent were in 2000. The disintegration of the nuclear family has had a profound impact on the economic well-being of African Americans. The 2006 National Urban League's State of Black America report said the median net worth of the average black family is ten times less than that of a white one.
Still, as the letters in this part poignantly demonstrate, throughout history many African American families have found a way to prevail over even the worst adversity. A portrait of African Americans' dysfunction and crisis has often overshadowed the reality of the many blessed with nurturing families, whether headed by two parents or one. The following letters are testaments to the viability — and possibility — of the black family.
Hannah Grover to Her Son Cato
Caldwell, [?]
June 3d 1805
My dear Son Cato
I long to see you in my old age I live in Caldwell with Mr. Grover the Minister of that place now my dear son I pray you to come and see your dear old Mother — Or send me twenty dollar and I will come and see you in Philadelphia — And if you cant come to see your old Mother pray send me a letter and tell me where you live what family you have and what you do for a living — I am a poor old servant I long for freedom — And my Master will free me if any body will ingage to maintain me so that I do not come upon him — I love you Cato you love your Mother — You are my only son
This from your affectionate Mother —
Hannah Van Buskerk now —
Hannah Grover
P.S. My dear son I have not seen you since I saw you at Staten Island At Addee Barker's 20 years ago — If you send any money send it by Dotr. Bonr and he will give it to me — If you have any love for your poor old Mother pray come or send to me My dear son I love you with all my heart —
Hannah Van Buskerk —
George Pleasant to Agnes Hobbs
George Pleasant and Agnes Hobbs were the parents of Elizabeth Keckley (1818–1907), a slave who became the seamstress for Mary Todd Lincoln while she was First Lady. Keckley kept the letters written by her father after his master on a nearby plantation in Virginia relocated to Tennessee, forever separating him from his wife and child. Keckley published the following letter in her autobiography, Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (1868).
Shelbyville, [Tennessee]
Sept. 6, 1833
Mrs. Agnes Hobbs,
Dear Wife:
My dear beloved wife I am more than glad to meet with opportunity writee thes few lines to you by my Mistress who ar now about starterng to Virginia, and sevl others of my old friends are with her; in compeney Mrs. Ann Rus the wie of mster Thos Rus and Dan Woodiard and his family and I am very sorry that I havn the chance to go with them as I feele Determid to see you If life last again. I am now here and out at this pleace so I am not able to get of at this time. I am write well and hearty and all the rest of masters family. I heard this eveng by Mistress that ar just from theree all sends love to you and all my old frends. I am a living in a town called Shelbvlle and I have wroe a greate many letters since Ive beene here and almost been reeady to my selfe that its out of the question to write any more at tall: my dear wife I don't feeld no whys like giving out writing to you as yet and I hope when you get this letter that you be Inncougege to write me a letter. I am well satisfied at my living at this place I am a making money for my own benefit and I hope that its to yours also. If I live to see Nexct year I shall heve my own time from master by giving him 100 and twenty Dollars a year and I thinke I shall be doing good bisness at that and heve something more thean all that. I hope with gods helpe that I may be abble to rejoys with you on the earth and In heaven lets meet when will I am determnid to nuver stop praying, not in this earth and I hope to praise god In glory there weel meet to part no more forever. So my dear wife I hope to meet you In paradase to prase god forever. I want Elizabeth to be a good girl and not thinke that because I am bound so fare that Gods not abble to open the way.
George Pleasant,
Hobbs a servant of Grum.
Lucy Smith to Sarah Boon
Fayetteville, North Carolina
May 1, 1842
My Dear Sister
We received your letter last Saturday that contained the distressing news of our dear Mother Death we did not know until we received it that she had moved it gave us grate pleasure to hear that she was with her Daughter when she died it greeved us much to hear that she was no more and to know we should see her no more but we sorrow not as those who have no hope for we know our loss is her eternal gain we wanted very much to go up and see her last Christamass but were disappointed I have nursed Miss Della Baby ever since it was born that was one reason why I could not go I have no news to tell you I am glad to hear tat times is the same with you as when we were there the Methodist Preacher Mr Mood Emersed two yesterday in the creek there was great rejoiseing
Your Brother sends his love to you he received your letter but has neglected to answer it his son garner is married to Jacob Harrises Daughter and has got a son his health had improved very much my health is not good Estra has been in bad health all the winter your Brother sends his love to you and all your family give our love to Sister, Brother your Mother husband and al your family. Accept a portion for your self prey for us
your Affectionate Sister Lucy Smith
Abream Scriven to Dinah Jones
New Orleans, Louisiana
September 19, 1858
My Dear Wife.
I take the pleasure of writing you these few with much regret to inform you that I am sold to a man by the name of Peterson [a trader] and stay in New Orleans. I am here yet. But I expect to go before long but when I get there I will write you and let you know where I am. My Dear I want to send you some things but I don't know who to send them by but I will try to get them to you and my children. Give my love to my father and mother and tell them good Bye for me and if we shall not meet in this world I hope to meet in heaven. My dear wife for you and my children my pen cannot express the griffe I feel to be parted from you all. I remain your truly husband until death.
Abream Scriven
James Tate to His Wife
West Point, Georgia
February 4, 1863
My Dear Wife,
I received your very welcome letter two weeks ago. You must not think hard of me for not answering it sooner — I have been getting Miss Maria to write for me ever since I have been living here at home this year and Master found out three or four weeks ago that she was writing letters for me and he told her to stop it at once and not to write any more for me that it was just keeping you and me miserable to be writing letters to each other for he said that your [Master] John would never let you come to see me and that he never expected to let me go to see you, that Mobile was too far off for him to ever let me go there and that he was going to try to persuade me to marry another woman that is living here and that he wants you to marry some other man that is living in Mobile, now I am just telling you what my Master said it is not what I say for I can assure you my dear wife I have not thought or said any thing like that yet. I can not think of any thing more to write to you now my dear wife. You must kiss Jimmie and little Mary Olivia for me and tell them their Papa would give any thing he had in this world to see them both. Give my love to John too.
If I ever do take a notion to marry again my dear wife I shall write and let you know all about it but I do not think I shall ever take such a notion again directly not if I always feel like I do now. For I can not think of any other woman nor love any other but you my dear wife.
Your devoted Husband
James Tate
Ann Valentine to Andrew Valentine
The following letter from a Missouri slave was written to her husband, Andrew Valentine, an enlisted soldier, and addressed to his barracks in St. Louis, Missouri.
January 19, 1864
My Dear Husband,
I r'ecd your letter dated Jan. 9th also one dated Jan'y 1st but have got no one till now to write for me. You do not know how bad I am treated. They are treating me worse and worse every day. Our child cries for you. Send me some money as soon as you can for me and my child are almost naked. My cloth is yet in the loom and there is no telling when it will be out. Do not send any of your letters to Hogsett especially those having money in them as Hogsett will keep the money. George Combs went to Hannibal soon after you did so I did not get that money from him. Do the best you can and do not fret too much for me for it wont be long before I will be free and then all we make will be ours.
Your affectionate wife,
Ann
P.S. Please send our little girl a string of beads in your next letter to remember you by. Ann
Mandy McCinny to George McCinny
Jefferson City, Missouri
May 11, 1864
Dear husban —
It is with pleasure that I take the opportunity of riting these few lines to you to let you no that I am well and hope these few lines reach you — they may find you the same. I want you to answer this letter as soon as you get it — my baby was born on Easter Monday the 28th — it is a girl. Its name is Mary Easter — it looks like you. I should like to see you very much. Fanny is well and the baby is well and I am well. I long to see the day that we will meet again. I have seen a great deal of trouble since you left. I want to no where cousin Dave is and if you can get together or not. He left the Monday after you did. Tell Jim I heard from his girl. She is well and at his old home [...] I am in Jefferson City and times are very hard hear. I wish that you would send som money as soon as you can as I need it so much. I want you to rite where you are and how you are. I heard you was sick. Direct your letter to Mr. Prince. No more at this time but I remain your Dear wife,
Mandy McCinny
Susanah Hart to Mark Hart
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
February 23, 1865
My dear Husband,
I take my pen in hand to rite a few lines to you to let you no that I have bin very sick and not bin able to go out. I want you to come as soon as you can and see about me and the children. I am out of money and I am very poor an if you don't come home or send some help to me, I and the children have to go to the poor house. My friends is no count to me. George went and put himself in the army on no word to me and I had hard work to get him out and had to promise to let him go with a Captain and I am afraid that he will run off yet — he is very bad and is very head strong. I received the letter you sent — I was very glad to hear from you. I have sent you 4 letters I got but one letter from you for some time. I would like to see you — I want you to come and see to getting places to put the children — I can't keep them — I have no money — I would like to see you once more — so no more, but remain your dear wife,
Susanah Hart write soon
Martha Bruce to John Edward Bruce
An ailing Martha Bruce wrote this letter to her son John Edward Bruce (1856–1924), a prominent New York–based journalist and activist whose pen name was Bruce Grit. Born a slave in Maryland, the self-educated Bruce founded the Argus in Washington, D.C., and was a contributing writer to numerous publications, including The Boston Tribune and The Albany Argus. In 1908 he launched the Weekly Standard in New York, and he later served as an American correspondent for The African Times Orient Review in London. A staunch believer in Pan-African nationalism, he belonged to Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and wrote for that organization's Negro World and the Daily Negro Times.
1731 E St.
September 23, 1887
Dear Son,
I were more than pleased to hear from you this morning that you were well and your prospects were so bright. I have been very much worried about you owing to bad dreams as well as bad thought. I have been expecting Marion to have called on me but expect her non-appearance has been caused by illness on her part or her family. Am in need of nothing but Gods blessing and the use of my limbs [illegible] I trust the worst part is over although I have not the use of my foot or being able to walk.
I have been three days at Mrs. Smoots and they were very kind and good to me and I was very sorry ... I were sick, very sick, the whole time I were there. You need not hurry yourselves to come home to me if your remaining away is to your betterment if it is for a month to come. Marion has been expecting to hear from you. Your letter and P.C. did not reach me till this morning as Mr. C has been out to work for over two weeks and he has brought them to me to day. He says that he sent word to me on last Tuesday but his messenger never made his appearance. He and his wife joins me in love to you and wish you all success.
Answer soon as possible and do not worry about me. I trust that I will be able to be about soon. [T]o hear from you today is worth more to my mind than five dollars and am certain that the news from you helps me more than medicine. Be sure if you have no other business to call you here except seeing me do not come until you settle your business. Do not come until you settle your business. The medicine did me a great deal of good as long as it lasted. Best love to you [illegible] George. Sorry to hear that he has had such a pull back but sickness is the lot of us all.
Your affectionate mother,
Martha Bruce
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Matilda Dunbar
The following letters are between the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) and his mother, Matilda Dunbar, who was born into slavery in Kentucky. Paul was one of two children Matilda had with Joshua, a Civil War veteran who served in the legendary 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Matilda also had two children from a previous marriage. After her divorce from Joshua in 1874, she supported her children by working as a washer-woman in Dayton, Ohio.
Chicago, Illinois
June 6, 1893
My Dear Mother,
I thought I would write you again and let you know how things are going with me and of the evening I spent with Frederick Douglass; You know Eugene Griffin made the remark in Dayton that I had never met any great men like Frederick Douglass, and that they wouldn't know anything about me. Well, Mr. Douglass had known of me for about a year and Sunday night his nephew took me to call upon him. We went where he staid at Lawyer and Mrs. Williams had found the old man gone home. [H]e had expected us earlier in the day and was much provoked because we did not come & had to leave and go out to dinner. Well after staying here a good while & making a pleasant call, meeting another writer, Mrs. Grimke of Washington, D.C., we went to the house where Mr. Douglass was taking dinner. The old man was just finishing dinner. He got up and came tottering into the room, "and this is Paul Dunbar," he said shaking hands and patting me on the shoulder. "Paul, how do you do, I've been knowing you for some time and you're one of my boys." He said so much Ma that I must wait until I am with you before I can tell you all. He had me read to him my "Ode to Ethiopia" and he himself read to us with much spirit "The Ol' Tunes" with which he seemed delighted. I gave him a book, although he insisted on buying it. "Well," he said, "if you give me this I will buy others," so I expect to sell him two or three anyhow. I am in the very highest and best society that Chicago affords. Mrs. Jarvis who owns a seven story building down in the heart of the city, is over seventy years old and with over $20,000.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Letters from Black America by Pamela Newkirk. Copyright © 2009 Pamela Newkirk. Excerpted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction,A Note on the Text,
PART I: Family,
PART II: Courtship and Romance,
PART III: Politics and Social Justice,
PART IV: Education and the Art of Scholarship,
PART V: War,
PART VI: Art and Culture,
PART VII: Across the Diaspora,
Acknowledgments,
Index,
What People are Saying About This
"This long-overdue collection by writers from all walks of life is moving, illuminating, and difficult to put down."--(Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children's Defense Fund)
"As the country enters a fresh atmosphere around our latest president, Letters from Black America strikes a vital, rich chord in which to breathe the new air."
__Karen Long, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
"Ah, the lure and lore of the letter! Nowadays we turn to cell phones, e-mail and instant messaging to connect, but when you crack open Pamela Newkirk’s Letters from Black America, you’ll see that the pen is mightier than the thumb. In this solid collection we encounter a remarkable range."
__Mika Ono, Essence
"When we think of great memorials and monuments, we often envision structures crafted out of steel or stone. But I believe the letters in Pamela Newkirk's tremendous collection represent perhaps the most powerful and enduring legacy to the strength, creativity, genius, and resilience of the African American community. Letters from Black America is itself a work of art."--(Andrew Carroll, editor of Letters of a Nation and War Letters)
"Seldom has the intimate life of a people been more variously revealed. Think of the day when there may only be downloaded e-mail, and then thank Pamela Newkirk for the enduring significance, poignancy, and delight of her Letters from Black America."--(David Levering Lewis, Julius Silver University Professor, New York University, and author of W.E.B. Du Bois)
"This is an extraordinary peek at what went on behind the closed doors of black America for nearly three hundred years. Notables are reduced to human beings, and the anonymous come to life. These extraordinary snapshots of the past will provide hours of informative pleasure and delightful reading. Wonderfully done."--(James McBride, author of The Color of Water)
Interviews
An email dialogue with Barbara Spindel
The portrayal of blacks in American culture has too often struck the same stereotypical notes. The election of Barack Obama, by placing a loving black family in the White House, may serve as a corrective to persistent images of the dysfunctional black household. Similarly, Letters from Black America, the new collection edited by author and journalist Pamela Newkirk, adds welcome dimension to representations of the black experience. The book, the first of its kind, includes letters from the 18th century to the present day. Its contributors range from anonymous slaves to civil rights icons, from everyday citizens to celebrated authors, and their writings are by turns devastating, uplifting, playful, prosaic -- in short, the full range of human expression. In our recent email conversation, Newkirk described the roots of the project, her selection process, and the difficulty future historians will face assembling collections like this one. -Barbara Spindel
B&N Review: How did you become involved in this project?
Pamela Newkirk: I was raised in a home where the ephemera of black life was all around me. My father was an antique dealer who maintained his own personal collection of black memorabilia. In my home you could find the posters, letters, rare books, and photographs of figures like Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, and Father Divine. Many of the people who were minor figures in popular culture held a prominent place in our home.
Later, as a journalist, I was struck by the ways in which the historical and contemporary contributions of African Americans were often marginalized. I addressed this marginalization in myfirst book, Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media.
Finally, as a reader, I always loved epistolary collections, but wondered why the letters of African-Americans were rarely included. My first epistolary effort was A Love No Less, a collection of African American love letters. Letters from Black America, with more than 200 letters from the 1700s to 2008, is far more ambitious and seeks to paint a multidimensional portrait of black life through the public and private missives of ordinary and extraordinary African Americans.
BNR: How did you go about choosing the letters to include?
PN: I found many of them in public archives, including the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Moorland-Spingarn Library at Howard University. I also embarked on an extensive outreach effort to African Americans in entertainment, politics, media, business, education, the military, and the like. My public call for letters was posted on listservs, in newspapers, and circulated word of mouth. I reviewed thousands of letters, and I tried to touch on important periods in black life, from slavery and the Civil War through Reconstruction, post Reconstruction, the rise of black nationalism, the Civil Rights Movement, up to contemporary times. I selected letters for their literary merit, poignancy, historical significance, or humor.
BNR: You allude in the introduction to the difficulty in obtaining permissions. Did many writers or estates you approached ultimately deny permission? What seemed to be holding them back?
PN: Pursuing permissions was a daunting and sometimes dispiriting task. In the end I had to cut many compelling letters due to the prerogative of the estates that declined to grant permission. Reasons varied: some said they believed the letters were private, even those that were personally placed in the archives by the correspondents; others cited financial incentives to hold off for a better deal; and still others said they planned to someday publish their own collections.
I suspect that some public figures were intimidated given the inclusion of letters written by the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. I also believe the resistance was due in part to a natural wish for privacy, skepticism over how their letters would be treated, fear that submitted letters would be rejected, and a failure to see the correspondence -- either their own or their ancestors' -- as important pieces to the puzzle of a collective history. Sadder still are the many letters that are discarded because of a prevailing sense of their unimportance. So many told me about the piles of letters from soldiers, former lovers, or parents and grandparents that they had discarded.
BNR: On the other hand, were there particular letters that you considered a real coup in being able to include?
PN: Yes, I was thrilled to get permission to publish the letters written by Alice Walker and Toni Morrison to Barack Obama. Walker's was written on November 5th, one day after his historic election. The first major coup was King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," along with personal letters to his family. That was followed by permission to publish important letters by Du Bois. That's when I knew I had a book.
Many of the most important writers of the 20th century are represented in the volume, including Morrison, Walker, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright. I was initially denied permission to publish several letters by James Baldwin but on appeal was finally granted permission to publish his compelling letter to his nephew on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
BNR: I thought that was one of the most powerful letters in the collection. Like Du Bois' 1914 letter to his 14-year-old daughter studying in England (he tells her to "know that brown is as pretty as white or prettier and crinkly hair as straight even though it is harder to comb") and a letter from a teenage Martin Luther King, spending a summer working in Connecticut, to his father (he tells him that "the white people here are very nice"), it offers a fascinating look at how some public figures privately discussed race within their families.
PN: I agree. The fact that nice white people was worth noting speaks volumes about his common experience in the South. I also found his letter to his pregnant wife while he was in prison quite moving. He said while he knows the experience is difficult in her condition, "as I said to you yesterday this is the cross we must bear for the freedom of our people." We often think of King's sacrifice, but this casts light on his family's.
I also found the exchange between Jean Toomer and James Weldon Johnson fascinating. Johnson had asked Toomer, who gained prominence during the Harlem Renaissance, to contribute a poem to his Negro anthology. Toomer declined, and seemed, like Tiger Woods, to reject the rigid racial branding that rendered him exclusively Negro. Saying that he did not want to contribute to anything that emphasized racial difference, he added: "My poems are not Negro prose, nor are they Anglo Saxon or white or English poems. They are, first, mine."
BNR: Are there other private letters here that have particularly enriched your understanding of public figures?
PN: Yes, nearly two decades before he achieved fame with the publication of Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison wrote soul-stirring letters from Harlem to his mother noting his frustration and disgust with their mutually impoverished lives despite their hard work in unrewarding menial jobs. "I find myself wishing the whole thing would explode so the world could start again from scratch."
The bravery, pride, and patriotism of Lewis Douglass -- Frederick Douglass's eldest son, who was among the first blacks to enlist in the Civil War -- is laid bare in a letter to his fiancée. After a brief description of battle, he says, "If I survive I shall write you a long letter ... Remember if I die, I die in a good cause. I wish we had a hundred thousand colored troops -- we would put an end to this war."
BNR: We've touched on a lot of the well-known figures in your book, but many of the letters come from uncelebrated African Americans. There are a few wrenching letters between slaves, some of whom are writing to loved ones they've been separated from by the slave trade. These are striking for their religious faith, for example the man being sold away from his family who writes his wife, "If we shall not meet in this world I hope to meet in heaven." Since literacy rates were so low among slaves, these really are remarkable documents. Can you say more about letters by slaves -- i.e. how rare they were, how they've been preserved, whether you think more might exist, safeguarded by families but not yet available to historians?
PN: Yes, the slave letters are wrenching. They show the extent to which African Americans, torn apart by the brutal institution of slavery, tried to preserve a semblance of family life. Faced with the prospect of lifelong separation from their loved ones, they looked to the afterlife for solace. These letters show us that despite their degradation, slaves valiantly struggled to maintain their humanity and familial bonds.
And yes, these letters are quite rare for a number of reasons, among them the mandated illiteracy of slaves; the risky proposition of mailing and receiving them; the inability of slaves -- devoid of privacy or belongings -- to preserve them; and the extent to which the ephemera of African American life have historically been discarded. These letters are more often found in the family papers of white owners, who either intercepted them before delivery or took ownership of them when they were discovered. There is no way to know how many of these letters remain in private hands due to a reluctance of white families to expose their slave-holding ancestry. Fortunately, because of the dozens of letters written to abolitionist newspapers and government officials, including President Lincoln and the military, a number of important letters written by slaves were preserved in archives.
BNR: What for you is the primary value in assembling a collection like this one?
PN: The letters of African Americans, like so much in African American life, have long been devalued. The primary purpose of this collection is to raise awareness of the need to collect and preserve these irreplaceable historical relics. It is my hope that individuals from all walks of life will see in this collection the value of their own personal correspondence, and that of their ancestors. Given the waning art of letter-writing, the preservation of letters takes on even greater significance.
In the past people cherished letters. But in this era of email and text messaging, so much of our heartfelt written impressions vanish soon after they're read. These letters remind us what has been lost in the name of progress. Given the fleeting nature of our communiques, many of our contemporary reflections will not be recorded for future generations. This will pose an enormous challenge for historians.
BNR: But you did include some email in the collection. Did many people send you email to consider? Did you get the sense that people do print out and hold on to significant email, treating it the way letters have been treated?
PN: I thought I would be inundated with email but in the end received very few. Email is typically written for a moment in time, not for eternity the way letters often were and are. I don't think any of us would want our writing to be judged by our email. Still, I was surprised by how few email submissions I received given the vast quantity that surely exist. And no, I don't get the sense that people preserve email the way they once did letters. Because of the spontaneity and informality of email, many of us don't commit the same level of care to their composition, which makes them less worthy of preservation. Even when they're well-written, they can't compete with the sentimentality of a letter replete with individual traits including penmanship, stationery, a quirky typewriter that dropped or raised a letter, and a stamp and postmark. These features, along with the writing itself, combine to raise the letter to an art form.
BNR: Are there any letters that we haven't addressed that you want to call attention to? A sentimental favorite, maybe?
PN: I have so many favorites. I love the letters written by the Watson and Granger families, which dispel the stereotype of the dysfunctional black family. I was particularly struck by the sensitive and loving relationships between black fathers and sons, a relationship that is rarely positively portrayed in popular culture.
Of the wonderful love letters, I was struck by the progressive thinking of Roscoe Conkling Bruce [son of the first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate], who in 1903 wrote this to his fiancée, a student at Radcliffe College: "I pray that we may be always the creatures of poetry and romance that now we are; I pray that I may make you always happy; I pray that your life will not be narrowed by marriage but enlarged; I pray that we may be useful and worthy always. Let us, whatever comes, never forsake our scholarly interests; let us never degrade our ideals; let us always live on the summits of experience & let us always be simple & noble & sensible & just." More than a century ago he described what many women would consider an ideal marriage today!
Barbara Spindel has covered books for Time Out New York, Newsweek.com, Details, and Spin. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies.