I would much rather you would get married to some good man, for every time I gits a letter from you it tears me all to pieces. The reason why I have not written you before, in a long time, is because your letters disturbed me so very much. You know I love my children…I was sorry to hear that Lewellyn, my poor little son, have had such bad health. I would come and see you, but I know you could not bear it. I want to see you and I don't want to see you. I love you just as well as I did the last day I saw you, and it will not do for you and I to meet. I am married, and my wife have two children, and if you and I meets it would make a very dissatisfied family.
Send me some of the children’s hair in a separate paper with their names on the paper…My dear, you know the Lord know both of our hearts. You know it never was our wishes to be separated from each other, and it never was our fault… I had rather anything to have happened to me most than ever have been parted from you and the children…If I was to die, today or tomorrow, I do not think I would die satisfied till you tell me you will try and marry some good, smart man that will take good care of you and the children; and do it because you love me; and not because I think more of the wife I have got than I do of you…I thinks of you and my children every day of my life. Laura I do love you the same. My love to you never have failed…
What is the value of these letters for a historian? What unique kinds of information can you find in them? How do these letters shape your understanding of the effects of slavery, perhaps in ways you never thought of before?