Hopes and Expectations by Barbara J. Beeching

Author:Barbara J. Beeching [Beeching, Barbara J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, African American Studies, History, United States, 19th Century
ISBN: 9781438461663
Google: 8T_ODQAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 29653908
Publisher: SUNY Press
Published: 2016-12-29T03:27:02+00:00

8

Addie Brown

The Working Girl in Hartford

Dearest friend & only Sister … you say you put my picture under your pillow I wish I had the pleasure laying along side of you. … Dear Sister I am very much delighted to hear you say that you like Mr. Tines if I should marry him I hope to have some pleas[ure] and comfort for he likes you very much.1

The most striking revelation of Addie Brown’s letters is the intense and loving friendship she shared with Rebecca Primus, a friendship we know of only because Rebecca saved those letters. Not named in the census, not listed in the city directory or any other local record, Addie Brown herself would have been lost to history without them. In all, Rebecca saved one hundred and twenty postings over a nine-year period.

Addie came to Hartford sometime in the 1850s, and by 1859 she and Rebecca were intimate friends, exchanging letters even when they were both in Hartford. In 1865, when Rebecca left on her mission South, as it was called, Addie was devastated. A letter from Henrietta to Rebecca written a week later describes an inconsolable Addie, whose gentleman friend brought her home early in the evening because she could not stop crying over Rebecca’s departure.2 Addie’s letters, which began in 1859, were half of a conversation with Rebecca, at first entirely dominated by the ups and downs of the intense relationship they shared. As she became accustomed to Rebecca’s absence, Addie wrote more about her own life in Hartford, describing her days as a domestic worker, the struggle against her employers’ unending demands, and her worries over money. Chronicling her days, she wove in vignettes of Hartford residents black and white, with observations on social gatherings, major political events, concerts, plays, lectures, and a series of young men who courted her. By 1866, when she wrote the sentences quoted above, Addie knew that her own future welfare hinged on marriage to a man.3

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