Letters from Freedom

Letter of Joseph M. Stewart to Lucy Chase.

The first lines of a letter from Joseph M. Stewart to Lucy Chase, Columbus, Georgia, 1868.

Support for this project has been provided by a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

The American Antiquarian Society manuscript collection includes letters written between 1863 and 1870 by twenty-two formerly enslaved students in the American South. The letters were sent to sisters Lucy and Sarah Chase, who taught in schools for freedmen throughout the South. The contents of the letters are varied. Some students wrote to update the sisters on family events such as deaths and marriages, to describe their enslavement, or to document the activities of Reconstruction. Several of the students continued their studies at secondary schools and became teachers.

Materials written by non-famous people of color from this period are scarce; therefore, this collection of twenty-two letters is a rare historical record. The letters have been digitized and transcribed and are now accessible to all in this online resource. 

The resource also includes some letters written by Sarah and Lucy containing descriptions of the schools and students. As Quakers, the Chase family valued education, abolition, and support for people of color.

The Students

The Teachers

Additional Information

Primary Source Digital Library

Displaying 1 - 22 of 22
Image Title Location Date Format Transcription
Abraham Rose letter Virginia 1870 Student letters
Celia Coonts letter Virginia Student letters
Charlotte Ann Jackson letter 1865 Student letters
David Barr letter Georgia 1868 Student letters
Dennis Colman letters Virginia 1870 Student letters
Elias F. Jefferson letter South Carolina 1867 Student letters
Emma Bynum letter Student letters
Emma Colt letter Virginia 1864 Student letters
Georgeanne Cook letter Virginia 1866 Student letters
Green Baker letter 1865 Student letters
Hannah Standing letter 1863 Student letters
James M. Quash letter South Carolina 1867 Student letters
Jordan C. Johnson letter Georgia 1868 Student letters
Joseph Green letter Virginia 1865 Student letters
Joseph M. Stewart letter Georgia 1868 Student letters
Julia A. Rutledge letters South Carolina 1867 Student letters
Louis Wales letter Virginia 1870 Student letters
Matilda Hill letter 1870 Student letters
Moses Hume letter Virginia 1870 Student letters
S.L. Rafe letter Florida Student letters
Solomon D. Green letter Virginia 1867 Student letters
Thomas Fry letter Virginia 1870 Student letters