Correspondence, 1851-1916 and undated

Scope and content:

The bulk of the letters cover the years before the American Civil War when John Emory Bryant (JEB) and Emma Spaulding were in Maine, during the Civil War when JEB was at Port Royal and Hilton Head, S.C., during Reconstruction in Georgia (1865-1887), and the remaining years in New York (1888-1900). The letters document JEB's life as a soldier, his courtship and relationship with his wife Emma Spaulding, his involvement in the Republican Party, temperance organizations, the Freedman's Bureau, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as his relationships with other politicians such as President Ulysses S. Grant, James Atkins, Governor Rufus Bullock, and Foster Blodgett, including prominent African-American politicians of the time such as Henry McNeal Turner and William Anderson Pledger.

Most of the letters during the Civil War were written between JEB and Emma Spaulding, whom he knew before the war when she was his student at Kent's Hill. The letters describe their courtship, their social lives, and also the conditions during the war. Some of the letters during this period are official orders from officers in the Union Army, including General Rufus Saxton, with whom JEB would continue to work after the war in the Freedman's Bureau.

There are also three volumes from the Confederate Army in Georgia that include official correspondence of the Camps of Instruction for Conscripts in the 7th and 8th Congressional Districts of Georgia and correspondence from the headquarters of Brigadier General Raleigh Edward Colston's Brigade at Fort Bartow, Georgia. It is unclear how these Confederate volumes ended up with Bryant, though it is speculated that they were found by Christopher C. Richardson of the 11th Maine Volunteers who was stationed at Griffin, Georgia, for a short time in 1865. These volumes also include added notes, correspondence, and clippings from John Emory Bryant, Captain Christopher C. Richardson (business partner of Bryant who was later killed by a political opponent), and a Black clerk named G. B. Snowden who worked at Bryant and Richardson's law firm. These volumes cover the years 1863-1868 and include information about the Freedmen's Bureau at Augusta, conditions for Black people in Augusta following the Civil War, and the Republican Club of Augusta. Bryant also pasted in letters from General Rufus Saxton, 1865.

There are a series of letters from Henry McNeal Turner (1834-1915) during April, 1866. Turner was a Black Republican leader, legislator, preacher, and Post Master of Augusta, Georgia. Turner became a bishop in the African Methodist Church, 1880-1892. His letters to Bryant describe his political activity and aspirations. On April 6th, amidst the grave illness of his wife and the death of one of his children, he writes, "Please let me have the last law passed by the Georgia legislature, granting the colored people all the protection given to the white. They claim here that Georgia has granted every right, except voting."

There are several letters throughout the collection that document conditions for Black people in Georgia. While serving picket duty on a plantation in Beaufort, S. C., on September 8th, 1862, Bryant describes attending a prayer meeting, where he heard the sermon and the call and response singing. In one letter written in 1869, African-American minister Charles R. Edwardes introduces the Colored Men of the Mechanics and Laboring Men Association to JEB. Edwardes explains how the organization wanted to help freed people buy land and homes. In 1868, Mr. P. Joiner writes to JEB reporting the shooting of a Black man by White democrats near Albany, Georgia. The White mob then continued on a rampage through the countryside, warning African Americans that it was "their country and they was going to rule it."

Much of the correspondence after the Civil War pertains to JEB's political career, aspirations, and struggles. He was a strong proponent of civil rights for African-American men, a cause that he fought for throughout his life, to the chagrin of many of his political opponents. Over the years he was embroiled in several conflicts, and at least three times charges were brought against him for corruption, charges that were eventually dropped. The letters document the different political cliques that he belonged to and fell out of favor with, his participation in the downfall of Governor Rufus Bullock, the jockeying for governmental jobs, and his attempts and failures to maintain financially viable Republican newspapers.

The correspondence between JEB and his wife Emma Spaulding Bryant documents their personal, professional, and political lives, much of which was spent living apart due to the instability of JEB's employment and the hostile living conditions for Radical Republicans in the South. Emma Bryant describes family life, financial hardship and her efforts to support herself, her interest in painting and drawing, education, and her religious and political beliefs. A particularly difficult moment between Emma and John is captured in Emma's letters from July and August of 1873. These letters shed light on women's health in the 19th century and the relationships between spouses when making medical decisions. The letters recount Emma's activities during that summer when she and her daughter Alice, were visiting relatives in Illinois and Ohio while JEB tended to his political affairs in Georgia. Emma visited a doctor for "uterine difficulties." In response to "insane" and "mad" telegrams sent by her husband, she defends her choice to see a doctor. She describes the treatment that she receives from the doctor, how she wishes to be treated with equality from her husband, and how insulted she is by the accusations of infidelity being sent to her by JEB. On August 7 she describes her husband's behavior and her response, "taunts me with leaving my baby for a few days in care of her Grandma and aunty! Morally raises the lash over me and says 'now will you obey? Will you be my inferior, my obedient child?' To him I answer Never – I will be your true loving wife, your companion and equal in every and the fullest sense – the mother of your children – nothing less and nothing else…" She also writes that she had no choice but to see a male doctor, "His manner of treatment was perfectly delicate and such as all women afflicted with such disease and wishing to recover must receive at the hands of some male physician until there are sufficient educated female physicians to supersede the males." The Bryants soon overcame this dispute. This portion of the Bryants' letters have been digitized and transcribed and can be found here: https://repository.duke.edu/dc/spauldingbryant

Contents

Using These Materials