This collection is comprised of 24 letters that Ellen Cannon Poe (6 letters) and her husband William (18 letters) wrote to her parents, Joseph and Nancy Taylor of Anderson, South Carolina, as well as 1 letter that Ellen wrote to her brother Benjamin. They discussed aspects of their lives in Augusta, Georgia; Baltimore, Maryland; and Montgomery, Alabama, emphasizing family news and information about their female slaves.
Ellen Cannon Poe first wrote to her parents around 1836, shortly after her marriage to William Poe, a banker who lived in Augusta, Georgia. William and Ellen provided regular updates about their lives until 1845, and again from 1851 to 1852. Ellen described domestic affairs and her relationship with her two stepsons, Thomas and Robert. Ellen and William frequently commented on the health of their slaves. When William Poe decided to take a banking job in Baltimore, Maryland, he and his wife wrote about their attempts to sell or hire out their slaves. Once in Maryland, William worried about the ease with which Juliet, the slave who accompanied them, could escape servitude. Ellen also explained her hesitation to sell a slave named Harriet, whose husband lived nearby, and complained about a slave named Lizzy. Lizzy, who seemed unable to learn simple household tasks, later became pregnant with a child that Ellen assumed was fathered by a white man. Lizzy eventually escaped to New Orleans, where Ellen suspected she passed as a white woman. William and Ellen Poe also wrote about family matters, their crops, William's business affairs, Ellen's poor health, and other news.
Colonel Joseph Taylor was born in South Carolina around 1783, the son of Samuel Taylor, a Revolutionary War veteran, and Eleanor Cannon. He and his wife, Nancy Sloan, lived in Anderson, South Carolina, and had several children, including Ellen and Benjamin. Ellen Cannon Taylor married William Poe, a banker from Augusta, Georgia, around 1835, and they had six children: William (b. ca. 1836), Ellen Matilda (b. ca. 1840), Azalea (b. September 1842), Nancy (b. 1844 or 1845), Nelson, and Taylor. The Poe family moved to Baltimore around 1842, and were living in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1850. William Poe had two sons, Robert and Thomas, from a previous marriage.
