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James Richey, Trenton, Kentucky, to his family, Ireland, 20 February 1819
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Collection Richey Letters
Title James Richey, Trenton, Kentucky, to his family, Ireland, 20 February 1819
Description In his fourth letter home, James Richey writes to his parents that he has now safely settled in America but is uneasy not to have had a response from them as yet. Since arriving on 27 December 1818, everything is to his expectation or even exceeded them, while he is living with an "agreeable young man" and are in business "Keeping Shop" or known here as "Store Keeping". He states that it is different than in Ireland with more variety of products but they being much more expensive. He describes the country as an "open fruitful healthy country" with Kentucky still possessing considerable herds of "Deer Bears, panthers, foxes and pole cats" in its forests so that farmers had to keep ten to twenty dogs to protect his farm from them. He states that in the state there are 405,064 inhabitants of which "80,561 Slaves, the Baptist religon is the most numerous, the Presbiterian & Methodist are next in number, there are some Episcopelians & some shaking Quakers but there are no distinction whatever in respect to Civil Rights'. Richey notes that farmers can begin with nothing and yet amass thousands of acres in a decade and generally each owns "a great many slaves here they are all black negroes the[y] generally keep from Ten to 40. When a man ownes a fiew [sic] men and women his family soon increases and the more children the[y] get it is better for their owner. When a man gets too many of them he hires them out to his nieighbour [...] Negroes are brought to the market for sale as regular as Cattle [...] some masters are very indulgent to them & some beats them and abuses them more like beasts than human beings, the law won't take hold of him'. He gives his 'private opinion' of his objection to Slavery saying "in a free country [it] is a great stain" but the Americans don't mind that, the[y] are too much blinded by Self Interest". Richey informs his parents that while land is cheap, it takes a farmer a considerable sum to invest in his farm including hiring slaves and buying livestock. He concludes his letter detailing the native american tribes who were the sole possessors of the state up to fifteen years ago [but is incomplete due to the letter being partially damaged]. He concludes being '"extremely glad I came to this country".
Date 20/02/1819
Date Issued 27/03/2023
Resource Type Text
Archival Record Id p155/2/1/1, p155/2/1/2
Publisher University of Galway
Extent 7pp
Topic Richey Letters
Geographic Trenton,Todd (county),Kentucky,United States,Lisburn,Antrim (county),Ireland
Temporal Nineteenth century,Eighteen tens
Genre Transcript,Reproduction
Note Title and transcript by Professor Kerby Miller. This transcript includes handwritten corrections to original transcript from PRONI, made with reference to original letters. Letter description by University of Galway.
Creator / Author Name James Richey