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Letter from Jane Amelia Knapp Briles to William James Knapp, June 27, 1880

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Date

June 27, 1880

Description

" A letter from Jane Amelia Knapp Briles to her brother William James Knapp. James and Jane Amelia were the grandchildren of Dinah Jackson, the last woman who was enslaved at Cherry Hill. During the Victorian Era, people communicated by writing letters to one another. People thought that a person who wrote well probably had good manners. For example, a person might feel disrespected if someone wrote a letter to them using slang instead of formal English. They might feel disrespected if someone replied late, or not at all. James and Jane Amelia were the great-grandchildren of Dinah Jackson, the last person who was enslaved at Cherry Hill. After their mother died in 1854, James, Jane Amelia, and their siblings became wards in different Van Rensselaer households. Both James and Jane Amelia worked as domestic workers for the family. Jane Amelia lived at Cherry Hill for one year. Then she moved to the household of Mary Forman Van Rensselaer Van Gaasbeck in Syracuse, N.Y. Jane stopped working for the family and moved to Elmira, NY in 1871. James lived and worked in the household of Richard Van Rensselear in Albany, N.Y. After Richard Van Rensselaer died, James needed a new job and place to live. He worked as a musician, a sales clerk at Hideley’s Music Store, a hospital porter and a nurse. James lived at Cherry Hill for about sixteen months between 1880 and 1884. His sister Minnie lived and worked there too." This item was added as part of the Diversity and Collaborative Knowledge Program funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Type

Written Document

Region

Capital District

Era

Civil War and Reconstruction

Topic

Communication

Repository

Historic Cherry Hill

Identifier

12_1_June 27_1880_JAKB_to_WJK

Source

Historic Cherry Hill

Rights

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