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Annual Report of the Freedman’s Hospital, Near Talladega, Alabama. For the Year 1874.
Montgomery, Alabama: W.W. Screws, State printer, 1875. 8vo (8.75” x 5.75”), printed gray wrappers. 8 pp. CONDITION: Good, wear to wrappers, back wrapper nearly detached, light wear to contents. The final annual report of an Alabama hospital for afflicted African Americans, established by the Freedmen’s Bureau and taken over by the State of Alabama in 1868. Addressed to the Alabama Governor, the report opens with text by William H. Thornton who submits the hospital’s expenses and budget for the year of 1874. At the time, the hospital housed twenty-three inmates, who are all listed on page seven. This year the hospital was appropriated $2750 from the state, a sum that was expected to be insufficient for the coming year due to the depreciation of State currency. Detailed here are several expenses for which the hospital needed to be reimbursed by the State. With the continued existence of the hospital in doubt, it is noted that “It would be unjust for them [i.e., the inmates] to be turned out upon the county of Talladega to be provided for, while justice and humanity demands that they should be taken care of. It would be but right and equitable that the State should do this.” Thornton’s report is followed by a report by Steward Green P. McAfee, who notes that the hospital is presently “in a splendid condition, and in fact, it is at all times kept thoroughly and neatly cleaned of all dirt and rubbish every twenty-four hours, and as a consequence…we have perfect health.” Next a report of inmates identifies individuals and their afflictions, age, and residence: Leat Coffee (admitted for syphilis), Oliver Orr (admitted for blindness), Martha Tuck (admitted for paralysis), Hannah Roberts (admitted for idiocy), and so forth. Over the course of 1874, two different inmates had given birth to children. The text concludes with a list of hospital property currently on the premises, including lanterns, kitchenware, irons, boxes, and so forth. It is noted that “where there is a difference between [the] number of articles present at date of last report and now, it is because they have been carelessly handled by the inmates and broken. I have found it impossible to avoid it.” Alabama abolished the hospital later in the year.
Item #9095
Price: $275.00
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