1865 Letter from a Southerner Describing Legal Efforts to Repossess Property Being “unlawfully and improperly occupied” by “officers” after the Civil War.
Lyndon, [?]: October 31, 1865. Autograph letter signed, A. H. Rhodes, to “Charley.” Four pages measuring 5 x 8 inches. Very good. Item #Cat349
A revealing Reconstruction-era letter centered on the authority and reach of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the contested recovery of property in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. Following a trip to Washington, Rhodes writes,
“My pardon has been granted, and will be forwarded through Gov. Pierpont, if it has not already been done, and I beg that you will take steps immediately to get it into your possession. In the meantime it strikes me that the letter of Mr. Colby ought to be sufficient as evidence before the Freedmen’s Bureau that my property is unlawfully and improperly occupied and withheld. You know how anxious I am to rescue my books and furniture from the grasp of the officers into whose hands they have fallen. On no terms will I consent to rent or sell the thousandth part of it”.
The letter reflects the Bureau’s ole in Reconstruction as both an administrative authority over abandoned or confiscated property and an arbiter in disputes between former Confederates and new claimants. Rhodes notes that he had delayed writing “because my whole letter would have been comprised in the single word ‘failure’ and I didn’t have the heart to write it.” Even his return South remains uncertain, dependent on “the next news from home,” and, implicitly, on the Bureau’s response. It’s notable that the matter involved Rhodes’ house, as many disputes involved land. Overall a concise document illustrating how the Freedmen’s Bureau functioned not only as an instrument of emancipation and aid, but as a central, contested authority in the reordering of property, power, and daily life in the Reconstruction South.
Price: $600.00