| Title: | Hannah B. Longstreet, Augusta to Isabella Allen. |
|---|---|
| ID | 1634 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Longstreet, Hannah B/14 |
| Year | 1873 |
| Sender | Longstreet, Hannah B |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | middle-class housewife |
| Sender Religion | Catholic |
| Origin | Augusta, Georgia, USA |
| Destination | prob. Belfast, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Allen, Isabella |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | friends |
| Source | D/1558/1/2/240: Presented by F. D. Campbell Allen Esq, London Road, Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex, England. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9804172 |
| Date | 11/06/1873 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 08:04:98. |
| Word Count | 982 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Augusta June 11 [18?]/73 My dear Friend, After so many months of silence, I should have many enquires to make and much to tell, but the monotony of a winter spent in the sick room, leaves me only questions after your welfare to put, and very little to say about myself at least. I hope the winter has passed without making inroads on Mr Allen's health. His close confinement to business must have kept you anxious and must have been a trial of his strength. Now that warm weather & long days have come, we in this country feel that the year's hard work is over. I dont know if it is so with you. Bank men, I presume know little of rest at any season. But I know warm weather brings gladness to you. We have seldom looked so anxiously for summer as we do now. The winter has been very severe and even the long days of June now upon us, are strangely cool. The unmelted snows of the north must be the cause. None of our friends have yet cared to leave Town and I think it not likely Uncle Campbell will remain here all summer. This, however, would not be his choice. He has been failing in health since the middle of February. Something of an apoplectic attack was felt at that time. It was slight, but has been followed by another more severe and in fear greatly there may be still another to be met. His bodily strength is his mind impaired and he spends nearly all his time on the couch, but his mind is perfectly clear and he is insatiable in his desire for reading. One or another of us, has always a book on hand and he takes a good many papers. He has been quite interested in the winding up of the Tichborne case and now the Modoe Indians are rousing all his sympathy. If he could save "Capt [Captain?] Jack" by taking up arms himself, I think he would do it. The negroes, and all the oppressed find a true friend in him. He is rewarded by having kind servants in his household, while in almost every southern house the reverse is felt. He has "considered the poor" always & has his blessing now. My Aunt Smith has passed the winter nursing me at the cottage. My lungs gave me trouble & I was confined to the house till a few weeks past. I am now able to come to Town and spend the month of June with Uncle Campbell and my Aunt has gone to visit her son; who is planting cotton near Savannah. Oswald has a family of half grown children and is himself a stout man of forty years old. Emma is detained in Town by a family of sick children. She has never had much care before with them. They have measles, and have by wholesale. Does Mr Allen remember Dr Joseph Eve, who attended him when he had his hand hurt by the lid of the chest. The Doctor and his wife have joined Dr Paul Eve & family & gone to Europe for health. Uncle Campbell sent you an Augusta paper, in which this was mentioned, though I tried to convince him it would do little to bring about a meeting between the travellers and your family. It is not likely they will go to Ireland, but if they should, they will doubtless find Mr Allen, as we shall send them his address. The party is made up of two Doctors, their wives, five grown children and one grandchild and, I should think, would be almost as unmanageable as that of the Shah of Persia. The two doctors have overworked themselves and are going for rest. Do you think they will find it? Have you any thought of going to Vienna or of sending your young people? Expositions have had their day, with you I doubt, but I would bespeak your attendance on our "Centennial" in Philadelphia, for which we are making great perparations. If the breach of brotherly love between the North & South could be healed at that celebration, we might look forward to it with pleasing expectations, but alas the bitterness is very great yet. Our troubles in New Orleans & other western states show how hard it is for brothers to bury the hatchet. A generation must die first. You asked me how the freed people serve us now. We have our troubles, but from what I gather of like trials in other countries, we are probably no worse of than other people. The color'd [coloured?] people improve their opportunities of getting instruction. Their schools are full and parents are making sacrifices of comfort by doing all the work for the present. The young people meantime are not learning to work & so it will take another generation to get matters settled. These young people call themselves ladies & gentlemen and of course it does them good to pass the houses of their old owners, books in hand, and to catch a glimpse of our white children sweeping the floors & sometimes browning themselves over a stove. The tables are turned, but it was time for us to work. We no longer fret over our lot. Matters are brightening for all. We are alarmed this morning by news of cholera in the West. It seems to have originated in New Orleans & is spreading up the Mississippi. There is a report of its having reached Washington City. So far there has been no case in Augusta. I hope you will not follow my example, but send a quick reply. Uncle Campbell and Mrs Gittnan send their kind remembrances to Mr Allen & yourself, and Emma joining me in love to you both and to the children. Remember us to your Cousins Campbell when you meet them. Very sincerely yours H. B. Longstreet. |
