Heading: (Anri-Slavery)
Author: Goodridge, Sewall
Title: New England lawyer chides his sister for her anti-slavery bias against Southerners
Place Published: Norfolk, Virginia
Publisher:
Date Published: Jan. 13, 1838
Description:

Autograph Letter Signed. 3 pp.+ stampless address leaf. To 12 year-old Sarah Goodridge, Lydenborough, New Hampshire.

Sewall Goodridge wrote the letter to his sister while staying with their uncle, Elijah Putnam Goodridge, who made a profitable living hiring out slaves as laborers. Sewall proposed marriage to Elijah's daughter, the ideal Southern belle, but was repeatedly refused. This was perhaps the reason Sewall was chiding his sister for being prejudiced against a Virginia bride.

"......Sister A informs me that you are very much alarmed lest I should take a Virginian for a wife, now Sarah, what objection can you have to a beautiful little slave holder, suppose she should chance to be possessor of a hundred Darkies and be an orphan withall very accomplished. Why Sarah the girls of Virginia are as fair and quite as amiable in my opinion as are those "raised" (as we say here in Va.) in a Northern climate but Sarah you are prejudiced, suppose when I visit you I should persuade one to come on with me and then you could form a more correct opinion, ah, but they will not be persuaded unless I take them for better or worse...I hope none of you have become Abolitionists. They are looked upon here in the same light that an assassin is with you, we have a great deal of excitement here on the subject caused by the resolution introduced in Congress this session [the "Gag rule"] I wish I may never hear more of it..."

A man with the name Elijah Putnam Goodridge had been jailed in Boston in 1816 for falsely accusing three other men of highway robbery, having staged the theft by shooting himself in the hand and cutting himself with a razor. The accused were ably represented by Daniel Webster who exposed Goodridge's bizarre fraud, which became notorious as "The Sham Robbery". If this was the same man, it might explain why he left his ancestral New England to resettle in Norfolk, where, 20 years slater, he would happily play host to his nephew - who proposed marriage to Elijah's daughter, his ideal southern belle, but was repeatedly refused. Sewall then soured on Southern life; before the Civil War - in which four of Elijah's sons fought for the Confederate Army - Sewell left Virginia for Iowa, where he rose to prominence as a wealthy judge. He never married.

A man with the name Elijah Putnam Goodridge had been jailed in Boston in 1816 for falsely accusing three other men of highway robbery, having staged the theft by shooting himself in the hand and cutting himself with a razor. The accused were ably represented by Daniel Webster who exposed Goodridge's bizarre fraud, which became notorious as "The Sham Robbery". If this was the same man, it might explain why he left his ancestral New England to resettle in Norfolk, where, 20 years slater, he would happily play host to his nephew - who proposed marriage to Elijah's daughter, his ideal southern belle, but was repeatedly refused. Sewall then soured on Southern life; before the Civil War - in which four of Elijah's sons fought for the Confederate Army - Sewell left Virginia for Iowa, where he rose to prominence as a wealthy judge. He never married.

Small hole from seal opening; separation at folds, with no loss of text, repaired with archival tape; good.