Letter from New England woman visiting Southern relatives in Tennessee:.
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- Lebanon, Tennessee: , December 29, 1850.
Autograph Letter Signed (with initials). blue paper, folded folio sheet, 4 pp.+ stampless address leaf. Small hole from seal-opening with loss of a few words, some creasing, postmark on back sheet, remnant of wax seal on back page; otherwise very good. This autograph letter in a highly legible hand is to her younger sister, Harriet E. Cossitt, Claremont, in New Hampshire.
Christmas "is not observed here in the same manner that it is there, no churches holding religious services on that day. I attended the celebration of the Sons of Temperance on Christmas day… Christmas week is considered as 'the holidays of the year' for white and black. No work is the order for all servants but house servants, and they have their parties, suppers and their candy boilings and pullings, as they say, for I do not attend such sweet places. It would amuse you to see their smiling ebony faces, bowing and grinning as they claim their Christmas gifts and 'yes massa' or 'please missa', may I do this or that, having more privileges than many poor, intelligent whites."These words were uncharacteristic of other New England observers of the antebellum South who were appalled by slavery and expressed only sympathy for the enslaved (even if some noted that many poor whites, both North and South, also lived a meager existence, in contrast with so-called "privileged" Negroes.) Emily Cossitt (1813-1897) was a 37-year-old, unmarried woman from a wealthy New Hampshire family, her father being President of the local bank. Her uncle, whom she was visiting, was a Presbyterian Minister and religious matters were one of her principal interests, much of this letter concerning a local dispute between a Baptist and a Methodist clergyman. She was well-educated – she opens the letter with a flowery poem – and perhaps something of a snob. (Neither she, nor her two sisters would ever marry). This may explain her disdain for her uncle's slaves, perhaps less racism than simple arrogance. Despite a racist tone, the letter has good content concerning African Americans in pre–Civil War America.
Christmas "is not observed here in the same manner that it is there, no churches holding religious services on that day. I attended the celebration of the Sons of Temperance on Christmas day… Christmas week is considered as 'the holidays of the year' for white and black. No work is the order for all servants but house servants, and they have their parties, suppers and their candy boilings and pullings, as they say, for I do not attend such sweet places. It would amuse you to see their smiling ebony faces, bowing and grinning as they claim their Christmas gifts and 'yes massa' or 'please missa', may I do this or that, having more privileges than many poor, intelligent whites."These words were uncharacteristic of other New England observers of the antebellum South who were appalled by slavery and expressed only sympathy for the enslaved (even if some noted that many poor whites, both North and South, also lived a meager existence, in contrast with so-called "privileged" Negroes.) Emily Cossitt (1813-1897) was a 37-year-old, unmarried woman from a wealthy New Hampshire family, her father being President of the local bank. Her uncle, whom she was visiting, was a Presbyterian Minister and religious matters were one of her principal interests, much of this letter concerning a local dispute between a Baptist and a Methodist clergyman. She was well-educated – she opens the letter with a flowery poem – and perhaps something of a snob. (Neither she, nor her two sisters would ever marry). This may explain her disdain for her uncle's slaves, perhaps less racism than simple arrogance. Despite a racist tone, the letter has good content concerning African Americans in pre–Civil War America.