Search

"There is not a woman in Alexandria now who sympathizes with me in my work…" Talks with wounded soldier; his reaction to injury. Contraband and soldier housing. Contraband tenement burns. Relations with army personnel. Description of a contraband barracks; she contemplates an appeal to Lincoln about them. Mr. Burge: executive in contraband work who is usually drunk. Dr. Ripley: a quack and a thief. Contrabands' Christmas. She secures a place for contrabands to live. Ambulance shortage. Commentary on Reverend Gladwin. Smallpox. She sees a wounded soldier she knows from New York.

Personnel changes in contraband work in Alexandria. Harriet Jacobs comes on staff. Bureaucratic snags in clothing distributions. List of goods received. Soldiers unkind to blacks. Smallpox. Northern and Southern sypathies clash in Alexandria.

Re: shipment of clothing etc. for contrabands. Smallpox. Mention of Harriet Jacobs.

Staffing the Freedman work. The very anti-negro Mrs. Dennis, vocal in her opinions. Massachusetts abolitionists visit. Alexandria citizens' opinions on war and slavery.

School faculty for Alexandria contrabands: are whites or blacks better able to do the work? American inclination to prejudice. Includes envelope.

Courtmartial and military arrests. General John P. Slough (1829-1867) arrested. Slough's efforts "to suppress drinking"; his total disinterest in contraband work. Army makes money renting rooms to contrabands intended to be free. Reverend Gladwin thinks Julia, a woman, ought to stay out of decision making. Continual search for housing and office space. Plantation home turned into pesthouse; Dr. Bigelow intends to ship all orphans to pesthouse. Inhumanity of Bigelow and Colonel Wells. Tour of contraband tenements. Visit to several F. F. V. families. Result of miscegenation: white slaves. Plight of black girls: sexual harassment from white men, especially soldiers. Reverend Gladwin's sanctimoniousness. Winter weather. Includes envelope addressed to Maria G. Porter in Rochester, New York.

Affairs of the Colored School, Lewis Overton, teacher.

Women's clothing barrel arrives; contention among recipients over who gets what. List of what goods are desired, and what are not. Julia goes to see General Slough about orphans-in-pesthouse question, with Mrs. Jacobs. Visit to the Provost Marshall Col. Wells to plead for impoverished contrabands. Slow wheels of bureaucracy. Attends first session of new Senate. Reverend Gladwin still lobbying for a superintendancy. Colonel Beecher unjustly courtmartialed.

Order for women's clothing. Differences in tastes between races. Needs supplied by northern donors. Visit to Mount Vernon (excellent); list of pilfered souvenirs. Southerners take oath of allegiance. She finds a New York soldier's widow sick in a filthy Alexandria tenement, bankrupt and unable to get home.

Regarding Julia Wilbur's work in Alexandria . Letter in manuscript will raise more emotion than a printed circular. Fund-raising activities.