Slave Master at the Eypt Plantation is put into the Ground

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/28/2005

Autograph Letter Signed “William H. Anderson” 4p. quarto, Natchez, February 12, 1860, with great content by the schoolteacher from Vermont funeral for the slave master at the Egypt Plantation, it reads in part: “…the mourners were in one of the front rooms - the neighbors and friends were at tone end of the large hall and the slaves at the other end on the back gallery. Readings, remarks and prayer were the exercises, the bearers numbered twelve, who wore a long black and white sash over the left shoulder and under the right arm, with another long scarf on the hat…the custom here at all funerals. An undertaker from town had charge of everything…the bearers took the burial case on to the gallery where it was taken by the same number of stout slaves and carried down into the yard followed by the bearers and friends. It was lowered into the grave and after a prayer, the blacks filled it up, covering up him who undoubtedly had often ordered them whipped, as he was reported a hard Master. They seemed to show however neither sorrow nor joy - things very different manner from what they are at the North…society recognizes a very different etiquette from what it does where there is no inferior class….” More on the local surroundings. Fine.

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