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[Edward C. Carter] Autograph Letter, unsigned. Baltimore, June 20, 1842. 4pp. To “my most affectionate and dearly beloved brother”, Henry J. Carter, Stockbridge, Mass.
 

An unemployed 20 year-old Massachusetts teacher who had left home the year before, in “exceeding hard times”, Edward had gone to Baltimore – where some 50 teachers were out of work – and taken a job working for a wealthy man who had 4 acres of farm land worked by slaves. "…he has given me the office of overseer to look after the blacks in their work. O but you ought to see me walk over the lot with my cane in my hand  to see how my work is going on. Then you ought to see the darky when he wants anything of me,  come up and take off his hat before he speaks…" Praising the “fine folks live in this beautiful part of the world”, Carter proves that even a Massachusetts Yankee could quickly adapt to Dixie ways. A rare and poignantly ironic slave-era letter.