![Item #46089 [ALS] Northern Woman Loves the Climate in Florida, But Laments Reconstruction. Reconstruction, H. M. Voorhees, Florida.](https://kaaterskillbooks.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/46089.jpg?width=768&height=1000&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1699972100)
[ALS] Northern Woman Loves the Climate in Florida, But Laments Reconstruction.
Palatka, FL: 1874. [6] pp. w. envelope. 8 x 5 inches. Very good, folded, faint soiling. Item #46089
While much of the letter concerns the "loveliness of the climate," "the glory of Southern life and the beautiful scenery," and the sweetness of the fruit, it ultimately serves as a platform for a northerner's unsavory views.
"The soil is in most places very barren needing constant fertilization and the State of the Society most wretched. The sudden change from the System of Slavery has impoverished the Planters and they are in the main incapable of retrieving their fortunes. The Negroes most ignorant and unprepared for Citizenship are making sad work with the politics of this state. It will require a generation of time to overcome the Evil influences of the present and unless there is a great influx of Northern people (which seems quite improbable) the residents of this state will suffer for some time from unjust lawmakers."
Dated and signed February 7th, 1874, H.M. Voorhees, with stamped envelope to John Babcock, M.D., Cedar Hill, Albany County, NY. Dr. John Babcock (1814-1879), born in Bethlehem New York, was the town's best known doctor having trained at the Vermont Academy of Medicine in the early 1840s. He kept an office at Beckers Corners. The Voorhees family was from the Albany County area.
Price: $300.00