A Long Time Coming
yankees in ante-bellum virginia
Over twenty years ago, I began doing our family's history. It was the age of Compuserve, forums, and on-line genealogy pioneers. In exploring my Massachusetts Lincoln ancestors, I got a forum response from Rev. Bud Woodward in New Hampshire who had some original letters written by Lincolns in the mid-19th century. Rev. Woodward connected me to Sarah Ann Burt Lincoln's great granddaughter Frances (King) Ackerly who had a collection of letters in typescript form done around 1920. The letters within are based on typescripts from the Rev. Woodward and Mrs. Ackerly. The original letters are all now in the archives of Virginia Tech University. When the opportunity arises, I will examine the originals. (Lincoln-Look Family Papers, Ms1985-009 - Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.)
These letters from and to Sarah Ann Burt Lincoln and her family begin in 1844 when she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (College) and recount in much detail her travels south to Virginia to continue a teaching career. In the southwestern corner of that Commonwealth, she meets and marries another transplanted Yankee, Nathan Loomis Look from upstate New York. They set about building various enterprises, successfully. They try to raise a family, with tragic consequences. Then the Civil War and the attempts to survive and recover, all the time maintaining contact with the expanding Lincoln family in Petersham, Massachusetts.
Beyond day-to-day gossip and inquiries about family and friends, the letters describe the details of long distance travel in the mid-19th century, the prevalence of disease of all types, the tenuous nature of existence for young and old, the realities of farm and industrial economics, race relations and realities as Yankees of abolitionist families make a life in the South, the role of religion in the home and community, the roles of women in family enterprises, and the level of education and civic awareness for ordinary farmers and artisans in rural Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, among many other topics.
Sarah is my first cousin five times removed, the daughter of my 4th great grandfather's brother Alanson Lincoln who remained in Petersham where his father Enos had a thriving cooperage and farm. Sarah's mother was a widow when Sarah matriculated at Mt Holyoke, and her twenty-something brothers were running the modest farm. In their words and actions, therefore, they represent the middle class of the time.
This site presents the letters with links to supplementary or explanatory information on the people, places, politics, and other topics. Those links will be a work in progress, increasing with
time.
Editorial Note: The question arose how to handle common derogatory words used against African Americans as they appear in the letters, sometimes in anger, sometimes descriptive, and once self-descriptive? Passages in Huckleberry Finn came up in discussion. I decided to leave the text "as is", not applying modern standards to when or whether to delete offensive terms. Until someone gives better advice.
Sarah Ann Burt Lincoln
map of some letter locations
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