Servant Until Death

Shaun Usher of deputy dog has a new blog called Letters of Note which shares classic correspondence of all kinds. One that stands out is from a slave named Vilet Lester to a member of her former owner’s family, written in 1857. Here is an excerpt.
I am well and this is Injoying good hlth and has ever Since I Left Randolph. whend I left Randolf I went to Rockingham and Stad there five weaks and then I left there and went to Richmon virgina to be Sold and I Stade there three days and was bought by a man by the name of Groover and braught to Georgia and he kept me about Nine months and he being a trader Sold me to a man by the name of Rimes and he Sold me to a man by the name of Lester and he has owned me four years and Says that he will keep me til death Siperates us without Some of my old north Caroliner friends wants to buy me again. my Dear Mistress I cannot tell my fealings nor how bad I wish to See youand old Boss and Mss Rahol and Mother. I do not now which I want to See the worst Miss Rahol or mother I have thaugh that I wanted to See mother but never befour did I no what it was to want to See a parent and could not.

The post contains a transcript of the entire letter and a photograph of the handwriting. Link

Comments (17)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

I agree, with GQ. The casual nature of the letter is striking. It's so foreign to us in present-day to think about being bought and sold, which is a good thing!

I bet if we didn't have spell check on every application we'd see how bad people spell presently.
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If you'd like to read a more uplifting (and comical) letter from a former slave to his master, read this:

http://www.ridgway.k12.co.us/uploads/h7/GM/h7GMpPmbvq6aASekdjWX9Q/anderson_letter.pdf
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It seems Vilet is not just talking about her former slave-owners as family but about her separation from her actual Mother and child, who Vilet has been sold away from. Very very interesting, but incredibly sad letter. Thanks for sharing this.
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How typically American and pedantic to make light of a serious thing.
Yeah it's important to have a sense of humor, but really, isn't this rather childish? How are you going to explain this to the kids? Oh, they'll remember this moment, when the whole town's signs went silly. They'll remember.
And the drunk drivers will be saying "Oh, I thought they were joke signs, not really serious about us actually reading them and understanding that they're not jokes."
Nice.
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we can only hope. anyway we have people who spraypaint HAMMERTIME under the stop on the signs in madison. pretty amusing, actually. the city doesn't bother to pay people to clean it off cause there haven't been any complaints yet.
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Seriously, if they took the money from this project and just had a police presence every once in a while giving out tickets to violators at these intersections they'd save money, lives, and make a more effective statement.

It's fine to take it lightly, but a cop showing up even every now and again gets the message across pretty quick "don't cruise through this stop sign". And if that doesn't quite work the cost of the ticket for a moving violation as well as the added points to your insurance will speak volumes.
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Ey, weeks ago I was thinking about write "in the name of love" in the signals to make everybody think: "I hate that song" and pass away.

I´m not liying...
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I see a multitude of problems with this as well. I see people taking the signs less seriously and I doubt those who roll through stop signs fail to see the sign in the first place. Seems like a waste of time and money if this was intended as a serious campaign. The money would have been better spent in patrolling and driving re-education.

If was done just for the fun of it though, then I'm for it.
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I think it's a rather clever solution that will get the stop signs a bit more attention while not adding ill will towards cops as an overbearing cruiser presence might.
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@k

dude, when every pompously official-sounding message of government already has the credibility of an arsonist giving fire-safety tips, you oughta think about the benefits of cutting through the clutter to reclaim some little bit of attention. Or you could just take a breath and take what seems like a much-needed vacation.
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Got to agree with the nay-sayers. Who cares about creating ill-will towards the police? They're there to ticket people who aren't obeying the law.

And the possibility of people interpreting the stop signs themselves as fakes is too big a risk to take with people's lives.

"I'm sorry I ran over your daughter, but isn't that a funny sign?"
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