Jacobs, Harriet Brent. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.

Title

Jacobs, Harriet Brent. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.

Creator

Jacobs, Harriet Brent

Contributor

Post, Amy Kirby, 1802-1889

Date

185 ?

Description

Handwritten letter from Harriet Brent Jacobs to Amy Kirby Post, 185- Jacobs writes to Post about recent events including her ill health and concern regarding her slave narrative.

Subject

Post, Amy Kirby, b. 1802

Is Part Of

Isaac and Amy Post Family Papers

Rights

The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Identifier

783

Location

Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Transcription

(Page 1)

Cornwall March

My Dear Friend

I recieved [sic] your kind
and welcome ^letter^ and should have replied
to it much earlier but various hin
drances have prevented me and when
I would have written I was in Bed
with a severe attack of Rheumatism so
that I could not raise my hands to my
head I am still suffering with it in
my Shoulders and we have had much
sickness in the family this winter I know
my plea for want of time will find
its way to your heart
my dear friend let me thank you for
your kind and generous offer of the
hospitality of your pleasant home
which would afford me much pleas
ure to accept but as yet I [obliterated] ^cannot^ not
decide my friends Mr & Mrs Brockett is
very anxious that I should go to their
home and write they live very quietly
and retired they were here and spent
a day and night with me and saw from
my daily duties that it was hard for me

(Page 2)

to find much time to write as yet
I have not written a single page by
daylight Mrs W dont know from my
lips that I am writing for a Book and
has never seen a line of what I have written
I told her in the Autumn that I would
give her Louisa [sic] services through the win
ter if she would allow me my win
ter evenings to myself but with the
care of the little baby and the big
Babies and at the household calls I
have but a little time to think an [sic]
write but I have tried in my poor
way to do my best and that is not
much
And you my dear friend must not
expect much where there has been so
little given yes dear Amy there has
been more than a bountiful share
of suffering given enough to crush
the finer feelings of stouter hearts
than this poor timid one of mine
but I will try and not send you
a portraiture of feelings just now
the poor Book is in its Chrysalis state
and though I can never make it
a butterfly I am satisfied to have it
creep meekly among some of the hum
bler bugs I sometimes wish that I

(Page 3)

could fall into a Rip Van Winkle
sleep and wake with the blest be
lief of that little Witch Topsy that
I never was born but you will say it
is too late in the day I have outgrown
the belief oh yes and outlived it too
but you know that my bump of hope is large
how is my dear old friend Mr Post
I have no doubt but that he is at his
Post perhaps heading a mighty Phalanx
to put the Nebraska bill through
well he shall have my vote 1856
when Arnold and Belshassan rools [sic]
down the avalanche remember me
with much kindness to all the
family tell Willie I want to see
him very much when you write
tell me if I know the friend that
you spoke of in your letter as soon
as my plans are more matured I
will write you again it will be ve
ry difficult for to get some one [sic] in
my place yet it will be left for me
to do I know of but one person she is
a Ladys nurse and her wages would
be high but I think that can get her
she is a nice person I must stop this
rambling letter let no one see it Lou
sends much love to you I am sorry you
dont know her better you would love her

[Text aligned vertically along right margin of Page 3]

god bless you write as soon as you can yours H Jacobs

Annotations

Harriet Brent Jacobs, a former slave and abolitionist, is writing from Cornwall, New York to Amy Post, a close friend and benefactor. At the time she wrote this letter, Jacobs was living in the home of her employer, Cornelia Grinnell Willis and Nathaniel Parker Willis. The Willis's had paid for Jacobs's freedom from slavery. Louisa was Jacobs's daughter.

Jacobs refers to Witch Topsy, a character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Jacob references the traitor, Benedict Arnold and Belshazzar, a self- indulgent leader in the Bible who ruled blindly and then destroyed his Empire. This reference may refer to President Franklin Pierce who supported Stephen A. Douglas and the Nebraska Bill. She also mentions an effigy of Stephen A. Douglas, author of the Nebraska Bill, which permitted each new state admitted to the Union to determine its slave holding status.

Willie was Post's youngest son.

Tags

Abolitionism; Personal

Collection

D.93 Isaac and Amy Post Family Papers

Citation

Jacobs, Harriet Brent, “Jacobs, Harriet Brent. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.,” RBSCP Exhibits, accessed November 23, 2024, https://rbscpexhibits.lib.rochester.edu/items/show/3074.

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