Heading: (African American, 1866)
Author: Titsworth, J. M.
Title: Letter about a speech by a Black minister of the Freedmanâ€â„¢s Bureau
Place Published: Alfred Centre, New York
Publisher:
Date Published: Feb. 9, 1866
Description: Autograph Letter Signed. 3 pp. To his parents, probably in Plainfield, New Jersey.Titsworth was a young student at Alfred College, a 7th Day Baptist institution founded in the 1830s. It had long been a center of anti-slavery sentiment, being one of the first colleges in America to enroll African American (and Native American) students."...we are getting along very well in our studies...Last sabbath I heard a negro preach for the first time, his name was Eld[er].James, he used to live here and has been in the employ of the 'Freedmen Bureau' as a missionary. he spoke very fluently and when one was not looking at him you could not tell by his voice that he was a negro, unless he got very much interested in his subject and I thought while he was speaking that he was as well qualified to vote as the plagued Irishmen. Of course there are exceptions to every rule but I would rather trust a dumb negro than an Irishman at the polls.." Notable Black speakers were not uncommon in the small village of Alfred. Sojourner Truth later spoke from the pulpit of the college-linked Baptist Church. The writer's blatant prejudice against Irish Americans was no doubt related to the image of New York City Irish as anti-draft racist Copperheads during the Civil War.

Slight separation at folds; very good.