September 22, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/22/2011
Pair of Autograph Letters Signed by Robert H. Crist of Indiana who later served in the 21st Ind Vols as private 1st Ind. Hvy. Art as lieutenant, 8pp. total, quarto & folio, Natchez, Mississippi, and read in part: "...[11/17/1859]Tell Lee if he was down here he could have half a dozen little boys & girls of his own age to play with him, but they are badly tanned up. Mr. Brown has 6 or 8 from 4 to 10 years old but they dont go to school...[4/1/1860]You are no doubt aware that Slavery is so interwoven in all the institutions of the South, both Church and State, Civil & Political, that one cannot be described without describing or delineating the whole. There is no amount of labour to be performed but the cost of slaves & slave labour is taken into consideration, there is no Political movement started but slavery takes a prominent part or at least forms 2 or 3 planks in the platform. And in any country where it is supposed to be necessary to have slave labour or even where it wears a milder name- as the serfs of Russia, the peasants of England & Ireland, or the slave of the cotton and sugar plantations of Mississippi & La. The land holders find it necessary to make stringent laws and make use of a great deal of policy to keep them in subjection. Equality never would do England it never can exist here. While human nature remains frail, the employee is destined to be subject to the will of his employer. The difference in color some times or in some places makes a difference in treatment, but here in Natchez the bondsman or slave takes the precedence before a white laborer and even before mechanics. If a mechanic goes in the country to work for a planter he faces little or no better than the Plantation hand...Sometimes one man oversees two adjoining plantations they generally have a black overseer, one of their own hands who takes charge of affairs...if they have a good black trusty overseer, the planter hires some poor white ignoramus that can read and write, he is obliged to write to the planter 2 or 3 times per week...but does as the black overseer tells him..." Much more. Fine condition.
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