Beschreibung:

Autograph Letter Signed. 1 pg.+stampless address leaf. To William A. Fox, Georges Station, South Carolina. A mundane letter which invites historical speculation. First, in the text of the letter, together with misspellings and grammatical errors, there is a curious mix of what appears to be Black slave dialect (“he say”) and formal words (“precisely…at any rate”) which suggests that the writer may have been a freed slave with some education. A “Henry Bill” or “Bell” appears in 1850 Census records as a 27 year-old “Mulatto” living in Charleston with seven other mixed-race Blacks, all with the surname “Bill” or “Bell”, possibly indicating freed slaves who took the surname of a former master (plantation owner William Bell?) The recipient, William A. Fox, advertised in newspapers of the day as driving an “accommodation coach”, to carry passengers from the George’s Station Railroad depot. (Walterboro was 20 miles away) Here Census records are ambivalent, as they show one William A. Fox as an Irish laborer or farmer, but another as having an account in the post-Civil War Freedman’s Bank. Finally, the racist nickname “Old Coon”, repeated twice in the letter, may refer to a slave who carried this letter to the post. “Old Coon. Sir, Mrs. Tieryesan say you must moove his Piano if you canot hawl any more but if you are here he will get you to hawl more and he say he canot say precisely What Day but at any Rate in four five Days and supose Monday and Tuesday he [ones at the mark?]. I am much obliged to you, Henry Bill. Old Coon”