Abbot Letters to Hannah Rantoul

Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch to Hannah Rantoul, 30 April 1845

[From Elizabeth in Tarboro, North Carolina, to Hannah in Beverly. This letter was written four weeks after Elizabeth's marriage to Joseph Henry Bowditch, and two weeks after arriving in Tarboro. It notes that she traveled to Tarboro via New York and Baltimore; mentions seeing Elizabeth Woodberry and her (future husband) Isaac Story; gives her first impressions of Tarboro, the people, and Southern life, including the many blacks around her; and describes a circus that was in town.

Addressed to "Miss Hannah L Rantoul, Care of Robert Rantoul Esq., Beverly, Massachusetts." A separate notation by Hannah says "Elizabeth Blanchard (Abbot) Bowditch, Tarborough, North Carolina, April 30th 1845." Postmarked "TARBOH N. C. May 1." A wax seal is still attached, resulting in some missing words. BHS ID# 948.001.1275.]

Wednesday morn'g April 30th 1845

My dear sister Hannah,

Here I am dating a letter to you from Tarborough!, a long distance from all of you, but it does not seem so to me. I sit and think sometimes, and try to imagine you at home, wondering if I do not frequently come up before you as sister Lizzy, of olden time. Well my dear, it is sister Lizzy now and I trust it will always be. I hear so much of Mistress Bowditch from every one but Jo. Henry¹ that I begin to feel like an old married woman.

It is just four weeks today since I gave you my last kiss, and bade you a long farewell, and I am just longing to have a letter from you, saying how you are, and what kind of an eve'g you passed at our house. I take your miniature out often, and wish it could talk, some confidential talks, that we used to have together. What a blessed faculty is memory, and how much enjoyment is there in recalling such a past as ours has been. I believe my dear H. we have been loving friends. Nothing has ever transpired to interrupt our friendship, and as long as I live, though far from you, you will be ever dear.

It is two weeks today since I arrived here, as you of course have heard from G'a.² She tells me in one of her letters that she has been to see you several times. Do go to our house as formerly, and imagine her Lizzy, and love her. She is a good girl, but rather timid and cautious. She has always thought much of you. She misses me very much she says. I know she will for a time, and you must make up the loss to her.

I have just about got rested, for you must know that I was very tired, though we took the journey leisurely. I passed a remarkably pleasant time in N. York and Balt., and there I saw Isaac Story³ and E. Woodberry.⁴ I don't know but E. is with you, for from what she said to me, and what Mr. Story said, I felt that she would go back to Beverly this summer. I hope she will, & you will then have one of your old friends to walk and talk with. Her hair being cut off, and the cap that she wears, alters her a great deal, but she will soon look much better. Her hair is coming out very thick indeed. She thinks I have altered much since last summer. I suppose it was being so tired, arriving in the night, having no sleep, &c. She gave me a small silver waiter, very handsome, as a memento of olden friendship, and when I use all these things, which I hope will be soon, I shall think of the donors and prize them so highly. E.'s visit to me will be deferred till I go to housekeeping. Then my dear sister, all of them will visit Tarborough I hope.

I begin to feel like an inhabitant. People are extremely kind, and my callers were very prompt. I had not been twenty four hours here, before they greeted me with hearty shakes, and warm welcomes, urging me to be sociable and free. I cannot begin to tell you about Southern life. Everything is so different from the North. In the first place the weather is excessively warm. For the last week the glass has been to 90° but last night we had a very heavy thunder shower, which makes every thing look and appear delightfully. The trees here are beautiful, and a great number of them. The elm is more common than any others, and many of them nearly as large as the one on our common. I have heard so much of the Piny woods of N. C. that I was not prepared to see such fine shade trees. The roses are in blossom, and the gardens full of flowers. If some Yankee could but have the fine spots there are here for gardens, they would make them look delightfully. There is not much taste displayed in the arrangement of flowers. They grow up as they choose. I will except some, but generally. The Episcopal clergyman,⁵ it is said, has much taste and a beautiful spot, which I am going to visit soon. He was one of my first callers, and brought me a fine boquet from his garden.

I am sorry to say that the fruit will be very scarce, owing to a frost just about a week before we arrived. The farmers fear that peaches will be entirely cut off. They depend much upon fruit here in the summer, and much lament is made.

I board with a very fine lady, a plain, good natured, disinterested woman who has an idea that I must feel strange in a new country, and seems to be aware that I have always had a good mother to take care of me, and when Jo. Henry is away at his store, she takes me about her premises, and shows me how things are conducted.

O! the little black faces! They are more common than white ones and they seem to look upon me as a strange kind of animal. I never was stared at so much in my life, and no doubt some of my ways and speeches are entirely new to them, but I shall adhere to them. New England ways and customs will be ever sustained by me.

There are many Yankees in the place. One of Jo. Henry's friends, Mr. Chapman⁶ from Connecticut. I feel quite at home with him. He says that he has been here ten years, and is greatly attached, but it took him some time to conform to Southern habits.

Jo. Henry had hired me a black girl as servant. She had a practical name, Laura, but I could not have her. She to me would be a plague. I did not want a black with me all the time, and boarding as I did, I had nothing for her to do. So I gave her over to someone else. I am a Yankee, and felt as E. W. did, that she would rather be alone sometimes. I suppose a Southern lady could hardly do without one, to hang up her dresses, pour out the water to wash her hands, and I don't know but clean her teeth. Such waiting upon I am not accustomed to, though I like my share.

I was amused to see the blacks last Sunday, dressed for church. Without one had seen their faces, they could not have been told from white la[____] their dresses were so fine, and their ribbons so bright. [____] are I think a happy set of people. Let what will be sai[____] the contrary.

There are eight attached to this house, [____] servants, besides many children, and they go as cheerfully about their work as is possible, singing and talking as merrily as you can imagine. They live in a house by themselves, and cook in another, away from the family, and at the table there will be several children with long peacock tails tied together, fanning the flies, and looking to me very comically. All these little things appear very strange, but I shall soon get to look upon them as necessary.

Good morning my dear Hannah. A black servant of Miss Laurence's⁷ has just been into my room, and says "Mistress Bowditch, good morning." Miss E. Laurence sends her compliments and would be pleased to have Mr. & Mistress Bowditch pass a very social eve'g. Eve'g here means afternoon. She then heard my answer, bade me good morning very respectfully, and retired. They are very much attached to their Masters and Mistresses, and count themselves as members of the family.

Again good morn'g a few words more ere I mail it on Friday.

Thursday. This letter must go to the office today, and tomorrow will be whizzing off to Yankee land to see my dear Hannah.

I passed the afternoon most agreeably at Miss Laurence's, with a small company for my benefit. Had a really social eve'g, just such an one as you would enjoy. The society here my dear H. is excellent, polished and refined. That is a great deal, I wld say every thing, to make a small place like this pleasant.

I went to church last Sunday, though it was excessively warm, and I felt very strangely when I looked around and found but a small number, certainly not more than twenty, at the Episcopal church. It is a very pretty church, and the only [__?__] one in the place, small and neat. There is regular preaching there but once a fortnight.

It is a lovely morn'g and if I had you here I would go and take a long walk. Yesterday was a noisy one. There was a Circus in town, and the grounds upon which they had it was not far from the house, and such confusion, and going to and fro, and running of negroes dressed in white, some with men's hats tied with strings under the chin, and this with capes with huge ruffles reaching almost to their feet, imagining they looked so fine, would really have made you dear H. laugh heartily. You have a nice sense of the ridiculous, and food enough you would have for your merriment, if you could but have watched yesterday's proceedings.

I am such a lady of leisure that I have nothing else to do but discover the novel ways and doings of the South. Today is another holiday for many. There is a Camp meeting in the Country some miles from here, but there will be much passing to and from it all day. Such vehicles as transport them would make you laugh, horses without blinders and with coarse large ropes for reins and tacklings, and again the horses are an emaciated looking animal at the best, however much he may be dressed up.

Another thing that looks very strange to me is the women at work in the gardens and fields, driving horses and sometimes trying to pay on [?] most heartily with a piece of hickory with a little rope fastened to it. I want some good Yankee, that is a novice as well as myself, to sit with me and have some good laughs, and make just such kind of speeches as we choose. I am very cautious what I say here. They never have seen Yankee land, and do not know, and cannot imagine, how ridiculously some things strike me.

Well dear girl I have filled up my sheet pretty full, and hope you will find the largest paper you can, and fill every part very full when you write me. And say to Sarah⁸ that I have written her half of a good letter, good long one I mean, and when Jo. Henry gets time he will finish it & mail it. He is very busy, especially this week. Some of his goods are just here. Give much love to both her and her Mother,⁹ and your family, all of them. Say at our house that the next letter they have from me will be so long that they will have to give it two readings. Give much love to them, and [____] to G'a. that her letter was a real good one, & to wr[____] another on large paper.

My dear H., write me all the little news and please not show my letters. I write them for you. I wld like if you are willing that they should read them at our house. I am in hopes Sarah's letter will be mailed today. If not assure her why. It is an earlier date much than this. Ask Ma¹⁰ to send on Fred¹¹ or one of the children in a box, and I will welcome them most cordially. I do miss them very much. Remember me to all my friends. They are all remembered affectionately by me, & keep a very large share of real love for yourself.

Yrs truly E.

 

Copyright Charles Towne. Usage of this work is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0
Compiler: Charles Towne

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