Clothing Former Slaves at Washington, North Carolina.

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/27/2015

A great early postwar abolitionist's letter, 8pp. 8vo., written by a certain "C. L. Woodworth" as agent of the American Missionary Association of Freedmen, Amherst, [Mass.], Aug. 1865, concerning the relief of Colored refugees who came into the Union lines at Washington, North Carolina in early 1865, in very small part: "…Mr. Bullard has asked me to write you a letter about the Freedmen, thinking you would be interested…& very likely would be glad to aid them with your contributions. Two years ago last winter I spent in Washington, N. C. While I was there the good people of New Bedford sent me three barrels of clothing to be distributed among the poor colored people…there were some four thousand colored people in the town…a very large part of them were naked…I only had clothing enough to help the most needy…I quietly consulted two or three of the most intelligent colored men of the town & asked them to aid me in looking out objects for relief, doing everything with the least possible noise so as not to attract the attention of those who could…support themselves…these men…sent to me a dozen persons. When it was noised…over the town that I had clothing to distribute…to the blacks…although the day was cold & rainy…a crowd of two or three hundred came flocking to my quarters…besieging my doors till I had not an article left and such crowd it would not be possible to reproduce…out of Slavedom…such a mass of living humanity…jostled itself in the long hall around my door…I had occasionally seen one of these ragged creatures on the street but I had no idea that such a multitude of them were nestled in the shanties & cellars…of the town…the larger number of these persons had come from distant plantations, some of them miles beyond Raleigh & had been weeks in the woods…making their way to our lines…had hardly rags to cover his nakedness yet not one…would admit that he was ready to back to…state of a Slave. The first person who presented himself is an old man…who had been worn out on the plantations, his clothing scarcely fit to make a scarecrow of. I gave him a coat…pants & hats. The great tears are brimming in the old man's eyes…"God bless you massa"…the brother of the first…say…Massa runs away when de Yankees comes…he no leaves me nuffin…now comes two sisters, Caroline & Patsey fourteen & eight years of age. Their mother…left them…they are shoeless & stockingless…on this cold stormy morning…they do not complain…they have been nursed in suffering…after these comes a young woman with a babe in her arms & a little girl clinging to her hand. Her husband had been transported into the interior for security…she…fled to our lines. Twenty miles she traveled…not Queen Victoria herself…ever felt richer…then did that Slave mother when she took her bundle…I might run through the one hundred & ten cases…I distributed about two hundred & fifty articles of clothing…I had to appoint a door keeper to admit two or three at a time…I could have had that throng of ragged life photographed & sent to those who in their comfortable homes complain…will not all the S. S. children do all they can to feed & cloth…the poor colored children of the South…". Worthy of further research. Near fine.

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