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July 20-22, 1864

July, WEDNESDAY, 20, 1864.

exceedingly warm to day busy as usal i have bin worried conciderable to day with the machine in the evening Mary M and i went to see becky and anna we had

THURSDAY, 21.

a lovely time quite Pleasent to day i wrote to liz to day I had Plenty of visiters this afternoon rachel miss uhman and miss wood i feel very low spirited to night

FRIDAY, 22.

owing to disapointement very much like rain to day wich is very much needed i went down to Maryes this evening my only place of risort rachel lives so far that I can not go to see

Annotation 1

During the summer of 1864, Emilie describes many moments she felt “low spirited” or other signs of depressive emotions.  Based on her extensive research of American black labor, historian Jacqueline Jones found that “in the countryside, black women domestics suffered from desperate isolation in the absence of a larger community.”  The seclusion Emilie experienced in her summer time job placements might account for her low spirits.  Jacqueline Jones, American Work: Four Centuries of Black and White Labor, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998, 284.

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