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Beaufort, South Carolina, 19 June 1839. 4 pp. manuscript in ink on bifolium leaf, 9.375” x 7.75”. Docketed in ink above address panel on p. 4: “John Smith Letter Dated Bea[u]fort Jun 9 1839.” CONDITION: Good, separations along old folds, .5” x 1.5” loss to lower-right corner of p. 1, little loss of sense, and .5” x .75” sealing wax loss at p. 3, with loss to about two words.

A letter to a prominent Connecticut cabinetmaker, requesting quotes for a variety of chairs, all of which are sketched and labeled by the author, a wealthy South Carolina plantation owner whose slaves were among the first to be emancipated during the Civil War.

John Joyner Smith (1790–1872) inherited his grandfather’s Beaufort plantation in 1796, and amassed a considerable fortune, with a large plantation, over a hundred slaves, and an impressive townhouse in downtown Beaufort. In the letter offered here, Smith makes minute inquiries of his “old friend,” cabinetmaker Edward Shepard, regarding the cost to have seven chairs made, all of which are sketched (with annotations) and the first six of which are numbered:

I have Roughly sketched some chairs that I wish you to inform me what such would cost made by you in your shop of fine curled or Bird Eye Maple Strong, & neat, well varnished[.] you will name them as they are No. [i.e., numbered.] Say first what it would cost just as it is of Maple & Bamboo Bottom & Back No 4 No 5 No 6 just as they stand of the same then say what they would cost if th[ey were] set on rockers, of the same mat[erial as] those already mentioned to be varnished with the best clean liquid varnish not to look red or dark but just like the wood.

Above the drawings of chair no. 6 (sketched with and without rockers), Smith includes a friendly rib: “Strong & healthy must the wood be no yankey trick to me E.S.” Additional instructions stipulate that “No. 4, 5, & 6, are wanted to have the Bamboo to go all along in one unbroken piece from the top to bottom & where wood is let in to strengthen the chair it must be far back not to [be] touched by the Bamboo or any one in the chair. No 1, 2, & 3 are to be made of Bird Eye Maple curled maple or Black Walnut or handsomely painted like Rosewood. The price of each seperate & distinct so that no mistake can come.”

Smith makes several inquiries regarding payment (“where the money is to be paid & if SoCa money will do or if payment to Berkley in Charleston will answer? Or Cotton? or Rice…shipped to Hartford?”), asks after several acquaintances apparently in common, and requests “your Recpt to make soft Soap.”

Smith transitioned his grandfather’s plantation from Indigo to Sea Island Cotton, and by the time he and other plantation owners fled Union occupation in 1861, he had acquired about 700 acres and 131 slaves, many of whom, on January 1st, 1863, were among the first freedmen to hear the Emancipation Proclamation, which was read at Smith Plantation’s next incarnation as “Camp Saxton.” An account of this momentous day is included in Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s Complete Civil War Journal:

The services begun at 11 —prayer by our chaplain—President’s proclamation read by Dr W H Brisbane, a thing infinitely appropriate, a South Carolinian addressing South Carolinians—he was reared on this very soil, and emancipated his own slaves here, years ago. Then the colors were presented to me by Rev Mr French…The very moment Mr. French had ceased speaking & just as I took & waved the flag, which now for the first time meant anything to these poor people, there suddenly arose, close beside the platform, a strong but rather cracked & elderly male voice, into which two women’s voices immediately blended, singing as if by an impulse that can no more be quenched than the morning note of the song sparrow—the hymn

“My country ’tis of thee
Sweet land of Liberty”

People looked at each other & then at the stage to see whence came this interruption…firmly & irrepressibly the quavering voices sang on, verse after verse; others around them joined; some on the platform sung, but I motioned them to silence. I never saw anything so electric; it made all other words cheap…art could not have dreamed of a tribute to the day of jubilee that should be so affecting; history will not believe it; & when I came to speak of it, after it was silent, tears were everywhere…

Just think of it; the first day they had ever had a country, the first flag they had ever seen which promised anything to their people. (Higginson)

After serving as the base for the General Rufus Saxton’s 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry (later renamed the 33rd United States Colored Troops) from late 1862 to early 1863, the plantation became a refugee settlement for freedmen, including many of those liberated in the Combahee Raid. From 1864 to 1866, Smith’s plantation served as a “contraband school,” run by Elizabeth Hyde Botume.

Edward Shepard (1783–1862) learned chair-making with Solomon Cole in Glastonbury, Connecticut, before opening his own shop near the center of Wethersfield, where he became one of the most prolific furniture-makers in the town. He built a house next to his workshop, married in 1807, and kept several indentured apprentices (at least three of whom are documented as running away from his shop).

A letter from a prominent South Carolina slave owner to a Connecticut cabinetmaker, charmingly illustrated with seven ink sketches of chairs, and documenting business and personal connections between northerner and southerners before the Civil War.

REFERENCES: Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. The Complete Civil War Journal and Selected Letters of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, ed. Christopher Looby (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 2000) pp. 76–77; “Learn the Story of Beaufort & The Emancipation Oak” at Eat Stay Play Beaufort online; “John Joyner Smith (1790–1872)” at WikiTree online; “Elizabeth Hyde Botume - School” at National Trust for Historical Preservation online; “Old Fort Plantation – Beaufort – Beaufort County” at South Carolina Plantations online.

Item #10285

Price: $850.00