Letter home to Eckford,   Jan 16, 1863

Bowling green, a very prety town


Bowling Green

The public square in Bowling Green,
the area the rebels destroyed with fire.
630116wow

Bowling green January the 16th 1863
Dear Friends

I take my pen in hand to let you know how we are    the boys that is here is prety smart    thare is nearly 20 of us in an old tavern where we can live very nicely    we came here last evening    thare is one man that is a dying    it is Mr S..Brand of Fredonia    they say he is dying    he has been sick a good while    thare was a fellow died in Co.C    it was little Drummer Wiley    thare is not a potato in this town    eggs is worth 2.5cts a dozen    butter is from 30 to 40 cents per pound    thare is some buildings here that has ben burnt by the rebles bombarding the city    this is a very prety town for this country    the people here is more like heathens than they ar like white people    the people in Ky talk like the niggers a great deal    it is   rite smart   and   i be Doggon   and   quite peart[?]   with them    that is the way that they talk    i hav got some of them cookes that you sent to me yet

- no signature, end of letter? -

notes

  1. Wm could have heard southern dialect speech and associated it with blacks before the war. Many towns in Calhoun Co., especially Marshall, were stops on the Underground Railroad. -- pjw, 2003

    In 1846, an escaped slave named Adam Crosswhite, who was living in Marshall, was tracked down by his owners. Many town citizens had strong abolitionist views and rather than allow Crosswhite to return to slavery, they had the slave hunters arrested and ordered them to return to Kentucky without their slave. Crosswhite and his family were freed and given safe passage to Canada. These events and other similar episodes resulted in the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.
    -- http://www.rootsweb.com/~micalhou/1877_Index.htm

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edited by Peter J Wait, 5/8/2000