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Letter from Mary Pugh in Texas to Richard Pugh, December 15, 1862
Mary W. Pugh writes from Rusk, Texas, after a recent trip with her father back to Louisiana. He is leaving again in the morning and she wishes to send a letter to her husband Richard. She notes that with all the white men leaving, "there is no one left to look after the negroes but poor little me. Pa tried to find some suitable man to put on the place during Mr Williams’ absence but as nearly every man in Texas is a conscript he found it impossible." As a result, Frederick (one of the slaves) will be left in charge, and she thinks he “will do as well if not better, then any of these low white men.” She herself will be staying with a neighbor in the men’s absence, as neither of her parents would consent to her staying on the place alone. She adds that “I never saw the negroes look better or happier,” and they frequently ask her when Richard Pugh will return. She wants to come join him in Mississippi. She has knit him a shirt while "amongst these black jacks."
Mary W. Pugh
Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Part 3, Reel 7, Frames 151-153
Image scanned from 35mm microfilm published by UPA. Published here by W. Caleb McDaniel.
December 15, 1862
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English
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