One of the first collections i helped catalogue in the auction industry was a massive collection of paper ephemera and comics. Many first issues of early newspapers and magazines but also the first American comics from the funnies to the superhero stuff. Some bought by The British Museum, amongst others.
Amongst all these were many bounds volumes and within one 19th century bound volume i found this letter. Probably placed there for safe keeping.
http://imageupper.com/g/?S020001003E13807399 62711313
It reads
I cannot be satisfied, my Dearest Friend,
blest as I am in the matrimonial state,
unless I pour into your friendly bosom,
which has ever beat in unison with mine,
the various sensations which swell
with the liveliest emotions of pleasure
my almost bursting heart. I tell you my dear
husband is the most amiable of men.
I have now been married seven weeks and
have never found the least reason to
repent the day that joined us. My husband is
both in person and manners far from resembling
ugly, cross, old, disagreeable, and jealous
monsters, who think by confining to secure
a wife it is his maxim to treat as a
bosom friend, ................... ......... and not as a
plaything, or menial slave, the woman
of his choice............. ........... Neither party,
he says, should always obey implicitly;
but each yield to the other by turns.
An ancient maiden aunt, near seventy,
a cheerful, venerable and pleasant old lady,
lives in the house with us - she is the de-
light of both young and old; she is ci-
vil to all the neighborhood round,
generous and charitable to the poor,
I am convinced my husband likes nothing more
than he does me: he flatters me more
than the glass, and his intoxication,
(for so I must call the excess of his love)
often makes me blush for the unworthiness
of it's object, and wish I could be more deserving
of the man whose name I bear. To
say all in one word............... ..........and to
crown the whole...........my former lover
is now my indulgent husband, my fondness
is returned, and I might have had
a Price without the felicity I find in
him. Adieu! may you be as blest as I am un-
able to wish that I could be more
happy!It is appears like a letter to a friend informing her of a new and happy marriage. However, when one reads every other line the true meaning is revealed - a very unhappy wife !
The letter has been referenced in several 19th century publications. My copy is from around the date that appears top right but i have been unable to verify the location in Carolina. I know it reads " South Carolina " before that was a state but i have seen many letters which give an area of a state or county that is not official. ( North or South Devon for example )
The paper stock - it's laid paper. Authentic, not a modern stock. Very similar to that used by George Washington ( i've seen close ups of that type of paper )
Anyone have friends or colleagues that know about Carolina's history ?
