Mexico Mo Dec 30th 1863
My Dear Husband I have received your last kind letter a
few days ago and was much pleased to hear from you once more. It
seems like a long time since you left me. I have had nothing but
trouble since you left. You recollect what I told you how they would
do after you was gone. they abuse me because you went & say they
will not take care of our children & do nothing but quarrel with me all the
time and beat me scandalously the day before yesterday– Oh I never
thought you would give me so much trouble as I have got to bear
now. You ought not to left me in the fix I am in & all these
little helpless children to take care of. I was invited to a party
to night but I could not go I am in too much trouble to want to
go to parties. the children talk about you all the
time. I wish you could get a furlough & come to see us once
more. We want to see you worse than we ever did
before. Remember all I told you about how they would do me after you
left–for they do worse than they ever did & I do not know what will become
of me & my poor little children. Oh I wish you had staid with me
& not gone till I could go with you for I do nothing but grieve all the
time about you. write & tell me when you are coming.
Tell Isaac that his mother come & got his clothes she
was so sorry he went. You need not tell me to beg any more married
men to go. I see too much trouble to try to get any more into
trouble too– Write to me & do not forget me & my
children– farewell my dear husband from your wife
Martha
SOURCE: Ira Berlin & Leslie S. Rowland, Editors, Families and Freedom: A Documentary History
of African-American Kinship in the Civil War, p. 97
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