African Americana

3 pages, folio 7 9/16 x 12 1/4 in., on pale blue paper, address panel on verso of integral leaf, toning and short separations along old folds, tear from wax seal removal. 

A letter written by Thomas North who had relocated from Ohio to Kentucky, to his brother J.E. Jackson. He writes of his brother Myron's enslaved population of 26 individuals, noting that most are women, and he details the nature in which they are rented out. 

He continues with his observations and opinions about the conditions of Kentucky's enslaved, in part: "And in justice to the people of Kentucky I must say that from my own observation the situation of the Blacks is much different altogether better than the report of Ohio abolitionists admits for the white people think a great deal of their blacks and are not willing they should be misused and often given their choice of the men they hire them too [sic] and if they sell one they take the trouble to please the Black men as well as the white one." Continuing: "But they have more privlages [sic] than the above mentioned those of them who are industrious can often at some sorts of labor doo [sic] more than their master requires and if he does more he is paid for the balance by his master. Myron has one that mends shoes evenings and is willing to pay him for what he does after night. As for me I am satisfied that notwithstanding all that has been said concerning slavery the slave here is in many things much better situated than many poor white people even here or in Ohio."