Dartmouth Graduate, Joel Hough, Pre and Early Civil War-Period Archive written from the Deep South 

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Nov 21, 2014 - Nov 22, 2014

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• Lot Description
  Dartmouth Graduate, Joel Hough, Pre and Early Civil War-Period Archive written from the Deep South 
  
  17 items.
  
  Archive of letters from teacher and minister Joel J. Hough as a young man employed as a private teacher to the children of wealthy Natchez planters, written to his Yale classmate William H. Anderson. These letters, dated from the summer of 1859 through February of 1862, give a view of life among the elite of the Deep South as seen by a young New Englander.
  
  Joel Hough was hired to teach a private school located on the Natchez plantation known as Retirement, which was founded in 1791 on a Spanish land grant. The young man was awestruck at the beauty of the land and the style of living among the wealthy Mississippi planters: The houses here are very fine & furnished with all the elegancy of city life & we live here at Retirement like kings. Being a theological student, he began preaching sermons to the local slaves.
  
  Hough's letters are full of slave content. A fine example is his letter of August 8, 1860, which reads in part: Last Sabbath night a negro killed an overseer on one of Dr. Metcalf’s places. Also two of those detestable hounds here were coupled together & got stride of a fence & hung til both were dead. That cur Punch came into my room one day since you left & I was tempted to give him that whipping he was to have had from you, but mercy got the better of justice & he escaped…. Also heard that Mr. Henry B. has four slave children, one on this place, two at Mr. Session’s and one elsewhere, & that Mr. Edwin B. had one in town before he was married. Had a spat with Mrs H.B. the other day about the ministers at the North preaching abolition.
  
  As the election of 1860 heated up, sectarian passions were inflamed: Since Mr. B returned from the north he is so out of love with everything that is Northern that I fancy there is little chance of the boys going to Andover into college. He is for having them stay here to be soldiers to fight the northern Wide Awakes…last week a daguerro artist [at Jackson, MS] was found to have been tampering with slaves, & they took him to nearest tree & elevated him. I called a Mr Sessions to see his teacher & took tea last eve. While there Mr S had a letter from the overseer on one of his river places letting him --- with 125 bales of cotton was burned, and what made the matter worse was that it was set on fire by the negroes & that after it was discovered they all revolted & could be made to do nothing towards saving that --- out under the shed & to keep the buildings about from taking fire… I reckon the darkies will suffer when he gets among them.
  
  Hough's letter of Nov 19 is a fantastic overview of the reaction in the South over Lincoln's election, as well as his exultation of Lincoln's victory (a sentiment he wisely keeps to himself.) Political arguments raged at the dinner parties at the local plantations, where he became something of a "whipping boy" for the planters' anger. He confides in his old classmate Anderson a scathing indictment of the South: While their school system, equestrian locomotion, etc will come in for a full share of praise, that old gallows & an exhibition of a certain piece of rope will make a capital illustration in regard to their social system & reverence of law and the due forms of justice. The tell-tale faces of so many yellow people speaks of the morality of both whites & blacks, & forty six murdered in a single week in New Orleans suggests a volume about passion, gambling, & open contempt & defiance of law.
  
  By January 1861 the young theologian was thoroughly disgusted with all political parties, and the government's inaction over open rebellion, but notes that The South will not be very easily whipped or kept whipped in case it is once done... It would be disastrous in the extreme for a hostile enemy to come here among the planters. While now there is no danger of servile insurrection, the case would be very different with an army of enemies here.
  
  Hough was paid off, and released from his contract a day early by his employer, so he could not address the class. However, all the planters whose children he taught gave him enthusiastic letters of recommendation. He went to stay with his brother, who was a minister, in order to study his Hebrew and prepare for theology seminary. Hough filled in for his brother at his church when he fell ill. His letters to Anderson alternate between catching up on news of old classmates and criticizing the government's timid approach to the war: If our government don’t get over their fear that they shall hurt somebody, I shan’t care if England, France or JAPAN recognizes the CSA & all pitch in to give us fits. Regarding the draft, which he sees as inevitable, he remarks, ain’t lawyers and ministers exempt? 

  Condition

  Great condition, typed interpretations are included with each letter.
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