1862 Massachusetts Home Front Letter to a Union Soldier Opposing Governor Andrew, Charles Sumner, and the War’s Association with Emancipation: “It Is Enough for the Poor Soldiers to Fight for the Country’s Freedom Without Fighting for the Damned N—s.”
Charlestown, Massachusetts: November 1862. Autograph letter signed, Sam A. Brown, four pages, written to his brother George, then serving in the Union Army. 3pp, 4 ½ x 7 inches. Excellent. Item #List3722
A revealing Massachusetts home front letter written on the eve of the November 1862 elections, a month after Lincoln’s Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and as Northern Democrats attacked the increasing identification of the war with emancipation. Writing from Charlestown to his brother George in the army, Sam A. Brown explains that he has abandoned his own idea of enlisting, citing family objections and difficult economic conditions at home: “times are so hard, everything is up, higher than the old boy, and business is not very brisk.”
Brown then turns to the next day’s election and to the political figures most closely associated in Massachusetts with antislavery Republicanism:
“Tomorrow is election day. There is great fear of Gov. Andrew and Sumner being reelected, but I hope not. I don’t want the damn n—r men. I am afraid they will be, for the nigger party is too strong for us. You know who us is, don’t you.”
Brown’s objection is not simply to Republican politicians, but to the changing meaning of the war itself. He distinguishes between fighting for the Union and fighting for emancipation, writing:
“It is enough for the poor soldiers to fight for the Country’s freedom without fighting for the damned n—s.”
Particularly notable is Brown’s suggestion that army service may be changing his brother’s own views through contact with African Americans: “I suppose you being out and seeing so many that you begin to like them, don’t you, but I can’t see it.”
The remainder of the letter returns to domestic concerns, including Brown’s continued work, the cold weather, and a request that George lend him twelve dollars for an overcoat.
A direct Massachusetts expression of Northern Democratic opposition to emancipation, written to a Union soldier just before the 1862 elections. The letter is especially interesting for Brown’s distinction between fighting for the country and fighting for emancipation, and for his suspicion that military service itself might alter a soldier’s racial attitudes in ways not shared by those who remained at home.
Price: $875.00