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Collection Reference Number GLC00686.24
From Archive Folder Collection of the Van Valkenburgh family 
Title Gerrit S. van Valkenburgh to Mary B. Van Valkenburgh describing post-war life in Warren, Arkansas
Date 18 August 1865
Author Van Valkenburgh, Gerrit S. (fl. 1860-1866)  
Recipient Van Valkenburgh, Mary B.  
Document Type Correspondence
Content Description Written by Gerrit to his mother Mary. Says he loves and thinks often of his relatives in the North. Mentions that his brother Frank has already written about his release from the prison. Says the charges against him were false. Since he has been in Pine Bluff, he has been sick with chills and fever - he thinks typhoid. Reports that he is feeling better though. Says he boards with his employer, who is originally from Connecticut. Mentions an uncle who lives in Warren, Arkansas and says "their slaves - or former slaves - [are] still with them." The uncle bought a flour mill and his sons work there as well. Explains that Warren is a military post being garrisoned by "negroes - but they have had no trouble with them." Says his aunt is the superintendent of the Sunday School and that when he was there last they were holding "Negro meetings - reading the Bible and talking to them." Gives updates on his cousins. Comments that things are peaceable and that "The people are submitting with as good grace as possible to the necessities of the times."
Subjects Typhoid Fever  Disease  Health and Medical  Confederate States of America  Civil War  Reconstruction  Prisoner of War  African American History  Slavery  Emancipation  Mill  Industry  African American Troops  Religion  Women's History  Education  
People Van Valkenburgh, Gerrit  
Place written Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Theme The American Civil War; Women in American History; African Americans; Children & Family; Education; Health & Medicine; Law; Merchants & Commerce; Reconstruction; Religion; Slavery & Abolition
Sub-collection Papers and Images of the American Civil War
Additional Information Gerrit was the only one of the five Van Valkenburgh brothers who eventually sided with the Confederacy.
Copyright The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Module Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945