George S. Payne letters, 1838-1845, 1857
12 items
This collection is made up of ten energetic and at times impolite letters from sailor George S. Payne to his cousin Fayette W. Pierce, 1838-1845, and two miscellaneous incoming letters to Pierce. Payne wrote six letters from areas around New York City, both on land and shipboard (the brig Erie, bark Chancellor, and schooner Laurel), describing his leisure activities, attendance at church services, preparations for sailing, and a robbery of items on his boat. On arriving back at New York from a voyage to Buenos Aries, Argentina, in June 1842, he vividly described political assassinations and executions under General Juan Manuel de Rosas. The same year, he wrote a diatribe against the Thanksgiving holiday, focusing on the inhumane treatment of farm animals. Payne suffered from rheumatism and spent part of 1845 receiving treatment near Tampa, Florida, and recovering in St. Louis, Missouri. One of the remaining letters to Pierce, from J. F. Payne in 1857, includes a vivid and poetic description of travel to Florence, Nebraska.
Please see the box and folder listing below for details about the contents of each letter.