Letters from Thomas Garrett

Recipients include Ann Garrett (sister), Sarah Garrett (mother), 'J + M McCollin,' the James Garrett McCollin family, James Garrett McCollin, 'Children.' Letter to Ann Garrett, not dated. Includes an incident in which an Irish teenager set his dog on a young black child. The black child' mother attempted to come to the rescue. She was in turn attacked by the father of the teenager and murdered. Garrett's response is frustration when the killer goes free: "according to the Dred Scott decision, it is all right, as the Colour'd man in this country has no rights that the white man is bound to respect." Garrett goes on to say that "this is the second Colour'd person that has been killed in this town within six weeks by Irishmen." Later, Garrett says that "those who honestly and conscientiously acts up to their best convictions of Duty, both to themselves and their fellow men without regard to nation, or colour, must be comparatively happy, even when in straiten'd circumstances." He describes himself as in financial difficulty and having challenges paying his bills or getting help from others to do so. Letter to "Children, 1862/2/15. Mentions anti-slavery lectures being held in Delaware, as well as his take on the progress of the Civil War. Letter to "kinsfolks," not dated. Expresses happiness at the capture by the Union forces of "the entire rail road from Charleston to Savannah," which Garrett refers to as "the district of country above all others that ought to suffer, in my opinion." Garrett lays the blame for the Civil War at the feet of South Carolina. A letter to his son James asks James to take on "a young man" of about 20 as a farm worker and to be educated. Only later is it mentioned that this young man is "one of the most respectable color'd men in this place." Later in the same letter he expresses frustration with General McClellan, saying that after recent losses "it is no use for the President, Stanton, or the Generals to try to conquer the Southern Traitors, and save Slavery. They will have to give up slavery, or submit to be conquered by the rebels, with the aid of their slaves. ... If the President would once boldly proclaim Emancipation to all the slaves in the Rebel states unconditionally and then arm them the war would soon be brought to a close, but a peace sustaining slavery would not be worth one tenth of what it has cost, in men, and treasure." This letter was written in August 1862, a month before the Emancipation Proclamation was announced.