Letter, [184u] Nov. 25, Saybrook, Conn., [from] "Your affectionate son," [John Ayer] Charleston, S.C.

ArchivalResource

Ayer, John, 1824-. Letter, [184u] Nov. 25, Saybrook, Conn., [from] "Your affectionate son," [John Ayer] Charleston, S.C.

Letter, [184u] Nov. 25, Saybrook, Conn., [from] "Your affectionate son," [John Ayer] Charleston, S.C.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/33018578

Letter [ca. 1840s] of young sailor in Charleston, S.C., writing home to his mother in Connecticut re delays, news of mutual friends, and plans for departure for Alabama. [John Ayer] complains that efforts to ready his ship for a voyage to Mobile had been delayed since four of the crew had deserted and the cook and steward were jailed; reporting that the African American woman who cooked for the remaining crew provided them with "manavelins," a nautical slang term for pilfered scraps and leftovers of fine food: "my chum and I gets lots off menavelins out of her & we go shares; if you don't know what menavelins are Pa can tell you; it is any thing that comes from the cabin." Reports on meeting with a family friend in Charleston, John L. Hommiedieu, who now planned to travel to Mobile by land instead of water, on the ship Edwina.

1 item.

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