Passionate Abolitionist and
Witness to the American Civil War
Passionate Abolitionist and
Witness to the American Civil War
Includes news of people in Alfreton who William Slater would know before he left for America and also reports of massive public singing concerts at the Crystal Palace. Also references to the death of a fellow artist who appears to have lived nearby.
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Alfreton,
November 11, 1857
My dear William,
We received your lengthy epistles yesterday I cannot say I have read them, but I can say I have heard them all read, I am not a good deal fonder or reading small crossed writing than my Father Sarah and Bessey together or one after the other read them to me after I returned from school, for I have been lodging at Alfreton lately and saving a four shillings by so doing. You want to know how many scholars I have I can’t say precisely but one day I counted forty nine four or five or so of them coming only in the morning They keep wanting me to keep on writing and think I have as much time as they have. I tell them I don’t like to be writing such old fashioned stuff budget after budget and yarn after yarn one is expected nowadays to scrawl away by the square yard and be able to leave off at any minute. I never had a complete letter writer, neither did I receive such instruction at school about writing these few lines hoping they will find you quite well as they leave me at this here present. Nevertheless my ignorance upon that score is a thing I would sooner glory in than not.
I should think you will soon have some skating in your country, there won’t be much fear of the ice breaking without you get on it before it is ready. When you have shot a wild buffalo I should like to hear how you did it I should think there are plenty of them if you go far enough into the country.
I will send you some music before long, I am glad you are doing something in the singing line. I should think there never was such a movement in singing in England since it was a nation as there is now. There is to be a large band of certificated
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singers in Exeter hall and 3000 children again in the Crystal Palace and 2000 adults at another time a month or two before or after. I should think the palace will be very much crowded. the public seemed to be astounded at the number that were drawn together by a band of children. I should like to hear some of them vastly. You couldn’t send us a grape pie some morning morning could you. if you can’t do it conveniently, don’t attempt it. We have had some very delicious pear pie, my Father thought a good deal of them and did not want to have any more of those off the large tree sold. I think I could not manage very well to write out “Beyond the glittering” on this paper I must see if it cannot be sent on regular music paper without much expense but you had better study the tonic sol fa thoroughly and first of all understand the scale. Nobody will be able to sing well from the old notation without understanding that. I want my supper just now and mean to get it.
Mr Colledge says Delhi is taken and the news is not conjecture also the king and queen and some of his sons [crease makes words illegible] shot at once, it remains to be known what will be done with them Mr Colledge thinks it would be a mercy to put them to death
The same gentleman also told me that they have tried to launch the Leviathan (for that is the name she has been christened The Great Eastern) but did not succeed. they managed to make her move which raised a shout “she moves”, and then broke a chain, a tremendous chain too. I fancy they had a lot of men working a wheel or crank on some kind of machine or other, and, I heard, through some blunder they were all dragging and turning
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against one another and neutralizing each others efforts if breaking a thick chain can be said to be neuter. I wonder what the Americans will say when they say her, I should think she will be as much of a go a head as any of theirs. She was left standing on props at both ends when they failed in launching her. there must have been a great strain upon her middle then
Joseph Walle is building a house and shop at the bottom of Alfreton a little before Jepsons on the opposite side, Bell is building or superintending It for him the man who builds Alfreton chapel. Most people wish Joseph to succeed, he will work hard enough if that will do him any good
Dr Vaughn’s son is dead, he has left a work behind him entituled “Myths” or something like that which proved him to have been a deeply read scholar. A student from Rotherham told us and he says there was a report that his two daughters who were in Judia have fallen victims. I hope that will be disproved. The Drs troubles seem to be falling thick upon him
I am glad you have heard Albert Barnes preach I should very much like to hear him I wonder whether he intends writing a commentary upon the whole of the Old and New Testaments? I hope so. Have you any original Methodists in America, if not we are beforehand with you How far they are original it is not for me to conjecture, There is no state religion in America to sour the peoples minds so I should think there is less of a sectarian spirit there than here
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I really cannot pretend to fill this side although I have begun it. Sarah says I have left plenty of space at the top of my letter I tell her I don’t want to set a garden full of taters and leave never a bit of room for a road.
Give my kind regards to all friends and accept my best love and believe me to remain
Your affectionate brother,
John Slater
As long-suffering twenty-first century transcribers of William Slater’s letters, we can only rejoice to see that some of his relatives at the time also expressed dismay at having to try and make sense of his “Crossed writing” . While acknowledging that it produced significant financial savings at the time to half the weight of any letter by writing on it in two directions, it has always required great effort and patience to interpret many of the letters that William Slater wrote. So here we learn that both William Slater’s father as well as John, his brother, had no patience to put up with that style of correspondence!
In fairness, we should acknowledge that at the time readers were far more familiar with understanding all levels of handwriting and for most the part had developed “an eye” to focus on the communication written in one direction while ignoring the other.
John clearly is well familiar with the styles of singing in vogue at the time and was understandably impressed to report the popularity of concerts involving very large bands of choristers. He also offers to send the music for a particular song in tonic sol fa notations- a technique which is referred to by William in several of his letters.
This is technique for teaching sight reading was invented by Sally Ann Glover from Norwich England and published as a book in 1845. It was further popularized by Rev John Curwen as a way for teaching music for Sunday school singing. It uses a system of musical notation whereby every tone is given a name according to its relationship with other tones in the key: the usual staff notation is replaced with anglicized solfège syllables (e.g. do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do). By the end of the 19th century, the notations very popular in England, and it became standard practice to sell sell sheet music with the tonic sol fa technique. William Slater seems to have helped introduce the style into his local church in Reading, PA.
News that “Delhi had Fallen” relates to the 1857 uprising of Indian soldiers against the British East Indian Company’s Bengal army. The Indians assembled in large numbers to repel the British army for several months and were only defeated finally after the British imposed an extensive siege.
The full history of this event is extensively chronicled in Wikipedia.
Also the problems involved in launching “the Great Eastern” were very much hot news at the time of this letter. It was six times the tonnage of any ship yet built and was to be propelled by the most modern technology then available. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (they don’t think of names like that these days!) it was intended to give further evidence that Britain did indeed “Rule the waves”. Because of its size, it had to be moved sideways foot by foot to launch it over a three month period!
AS John Slater’s letter relates, things did not go as planned and it was not launched until 1858 and then only had a few years in active service.