Congratulations to Nikky Finney!

The Sandor Teszler Library congratulates Nikky Finney on her induction into the South Carolina Academy of Authors.

Author Nikky Finney next to an excerpt of her poem "The Thinking Men" on permanent display in Wofford's Old Main building, 2008.

Finney’s 2008 poem “The Thinking Men” celebrates the builders of Wofford’s Old Main.

Click image for larger size.

Finney is the author of several books of poetry and prose, editor of another, and, after 20 years of teaching at the University of Kentucky, will begin in the Fall of 2013 her tenure as the John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair of Creative Writing and Southern Literature at the University of South Carolina (Columbia).

For a biography and full list of publications, visit Finney's website.

Permelia

This item is a receipt for the sale of 21-year-old Permelia to A.M. Holland by John Susan[?] for $1100. 

The full text reads:

“Rec’d of A.M. Holland Eleven Hundred Dollars for a Negro Woman Named Permelia which Girl I warrant sound in body and mind and free from all incumberances [sic]

Jany 24/59 –

[signed] John Susan[?]

Said Girl is about Twenty one years of age”

It is difficult to know much for certain about the people concerned in this transaction. The illegibility of the seller’s signature, perhaps due to his semi-literacy, prevents us from knowing his name for certain.

However, research reveals that an Adolphus Milton (A.M.) Holland (b. Georgia) married a Mississippi woman in 1858 in Harrison County, Texas and was living with her in Rusk County by 1860.

Knowing this, from a social and economic standpoint the purchase of a slave woman for domestic duties makes some sense and lends weight to the assertion that this was the same A.M. Holland.

It seems that A.M. Holland served as a Confederate soldier through at least 1863, until he was presumably disabled.

The fate of 21-year-old Permelia, though, is lost to history — for now. If she survived the war period, Permelia would have been about 27 years old by 1865, and may turn up in the 1870 Federal Census.

Selection from a daguerreotype (circa 1850) of Delia, a slave on a plantation in Columbia, South Carolina. 

(This is a web essay reflecting an item from the Littlejohn Collection on display in the lobby of the Sandor Teszler Library until 22 April 2013.)