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Summary:
A unique series of letters from U.S. Naval Captain John Goldsborough, in charge of one of the “colonies” of
newly freed blacks at St. Simons Island, Georgia, to his wife. Five complete and two incomplete Autograph Letters Signed from U. S. Naval Captain John R. Goldsborough to his wife. Spring and summer of 1862. 98 pp. Inventory# 21063 $17,000 Historical Background:
Goldsborough relates a meeting with Robert Smalls, who had been sent to Charleston at the age of 12. Hired (with pay going to his master) in 1861 as a deckhand on a Confederate transport, Smalls became the steamer’s pilot. On May 13, 1862, while the white crew was ashore, Smalls commandeered the Planter, and its armaments. With his wife, children, and 12 other slaves aboard, he sailed past each Confederate fort until reaching the USS Onward. Smalls presented the Planter as a prize to Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont, commander of the blockading squadron. “I visited the Planter and learned from the contraband (9 in number they being still on board) Their cause, mode and manner of escape from Charleston – poor fellows they had many misgivings before finally cut loose from the wharf at Charleston, determined to do or die. It was life or death with them. They had made up this mind and come what might they firmly and resolutely determined to go ahead.” (May 27, 1862, 8 pp)
He also delivered a Confederate naval code book and information on troop locations. Northern papers hailed Smalls as a national hero, and Congress awarded him prize money. During Reconstruction he became a South Carolina militia general and five-term U.S. Congressman. Goldsborough’s ninety-eight pages, written during the first few months of his administration of St. Simons, detail the daily life on the “plantations” under his supervision and his larger goals for the island, including his desire to see St. Simons’ inhabitants both self-sufficient and happy. Goldsborough is firm about obedience, church attendance, temperance, and education. By August 1862, more than 500 former slaves lived on St. Simons. “I go for selecting the very best among them, like those that ran away with the Planter, put a pair of red breeches upon their legs, a zouve cap upon their head, and a musket in their hand, and with white officers send them forth to free the country of rebel traitors and tyrannical masters. They can do it, and it will not cost the government one half as much as our present army of white men.” (May 27, 1862, 8 pp) After criticizing runaway slaves, he talks about enlisting them in the war. Though enlightened compared to his contemporaries, Goldsborough still exhibits racist attitudes of his day. “It could not only be made a self supporting colony but be made to yield a handsome revenue … and in this way rid ourselves of this atrocious Nigger question by paying them a certain percentage on all cotton raised …Spare me from ever being a slave holder or having anything to do with them… Charleston must be destroyed – and Fort Sumpter must be ours again. Then I would either make South Carolina a Territory – or I would make all the Rebels shovel the State into the Gulph of Mexico…” (April 21-May 8, 1862, 50 pp) Five complete and two incomplete Autograph Letters Signed from U. S. Naval Captain John R. Goldsborough to his wife. Spring and summer of 1862. 98 pp.
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