Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1767

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

.21 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Cassandra Swasey Stevens letters from family, 1838-1881, Ms. Coll. 1767, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1838-1881 (inclusive)

Creator:

Stevens, Cassandra Swasey, 1818-1901

Form:

Correspondence

Abstract:

This collection of family correspondence consists of letters received by Cassandra Swasey Stevens (1818-1901), living in New Hampshire, from family members living in Alabama, Missouri and Boston, Massachussetts. These letters document each family member's experiences and their relationships with each other, and highlight the differences in culture and daily life between New England and Alabama during the Antebellum period.

Cassandra Swasey was born on October 6, 1818 in Meredith, New Hampshire to John Bond Swasey (1781-1828) and Alice Ladd Swasey (1779-1875). The family included sisters Mary Park (1811-1850), Jane Bond (1813-1897), Alice Asenith (1820-1830) and brother George Bond (1813-1865).

Cassandra married widower Ebenezer Stevens (1810-1901) in 1846 and had one daughter, Alice Swasey Stevens (1849-1937), joining Ebenezer's three children, Cyrus A. (1831-1906), Celestia A. (1833-1910), and Ebenezer Stevens Jr. (d. 1839) from his first marriage.

Cassandra died on June 6, 1901 at the age of 82.

This collection of family correspondence consists of letters received by Cassandra Swasey Stevens (1818-1901), living in New Hampshire, from family members residing in Alabama, Missouri and Boston, Massachussetts. These letters document each family member's experiences and their relationships with each other, and highlight the differences in culture and daily life between New England and Alabama during the Antebellum period.

Jane Swasey moved to Alabama in 1838 to teach school. She married planter Thompson Chiles (1810-1869) in 1839 and had three children. Her letters to her sister, comprise the largest part of this collection. She provides vivid detail of her journey to Alabama from New Hampshire, and her adaptation to life as a school teacher in rural Springfield, Alabama. While her initial letters alluded to both affection and aversion to Southern culture and its institutions, she seemed to fully adapt following her marriage.

During the same period, Cassandra married abolitionist, Ebenezer Stevens, while Jane's husband, Thompson Chiles, was a planter and enslaver. Despite the moral differences between the two households regarding slavery, the sisters maintained a strong bond. While there are no letters from Jane during the Civil War, she wrote in 1875 to thank Ebenezer for his help in settling their mother's estate. In that same letter, she described the postwar South noting, "The condition of the whole Southern country at present is a pitiable one. We are impoverished, and it seems almost impossible for people to come down to their actual condition."

The earliest letters from sister Mary Swasey date from her time in Benton, Missouri following her marriage to lawyer John Chapman (1814-1845) in 1839. She returned to New England after the death of her husband in 1845, spending time in Boston with her brother and mother. Consumed by grief, she frequently wrote about joining her late husband in death. Mary relocated to Alabama in 1846 and described her journey south with with all its mishaps and delays, such as boarding the wrong train, but is excited to be reunited with her sister Jane. In a letter dated December 17, 1846 she described Jane's home, "…the house is half mile from the road and not within site of it. I crossed a little stream and ascended a steep woody bank and then came out in sight of the dwelling, a little lovely cottage of logs with two rooms." Mary later moved to Mobile, Alabama where she taught school until her death from an untreated illness in December 1850.

Letters from brother George and mother Alice mainly regard family matters. Contained in the letters from her mother Alice, is an "acrostic written by Mrs. Swasey, 95 years, March 1874 for Fannie Ladd." The collection also includes a posthumous colored-pencil silhouette of Alice drawn by Virginia B. Ladd in 1881.

Most of the letters from Cassandra's husband, Ebenezer Stevens, date from 1857 and describe his journey to West Point, Indiana. His last letter, dated December 24, 1865, discusses her brother George's estate.

The collection also contains a series of letters from Cassandra's friend, Hosea Hatch Smith (1832–1866). Smith wrote while serving as a surgeon in the 1st and 2nd Louisiana Cavalry Regiments of the Union Army, stationed in the western and trans-Mississippi theaters. Additional letters from 1866 were sent from Michigan. His correspondence from 1863 to 1865 recounts his experiences during Union campaigns in Alabama and Louisiana, concluding with his service in Texas as a member of General Philip Sheridan's staff.