Whom Was He Writing To?

Thomas Jackson was mainly writing to his cousins Caleb and William Slater, who remained in England while Thomas moved to Reading, PA.

After Thomas had become a fervent abolitionist, he started to write extensive letters focused on the horrors of slavery and the progress of the civil war. His intention speaks to the immorality of slavery, therefore not allowing their politicians to support the Confederacy, despite the country’s economy was suffering due to the lack of cotton. To achieve his mission, Thomas needed supporters who would offer his letters for publication in English newspapers.

Caleb Slater was Thomas Jackson’s first cousin and was about 15 years older. He also was a master rope-maker and lived in the English town of Langley Mill, near Eastwood in the county of Nottinghamshire. This town is not 5 miles away from Ilkeston where Thomas Jackson grew up.

It is possible that Thomas Jackson worked at Caleb’s rope-making works at one time. They were certainly close friends from the times Thomas Jackson lived in England and grew up in Ilkeston

The letters in the collection clearly reveal that Caleb’s son William Slater went over to the USA to work with Thomas Jackson for a time. (Thomas’s high regard for William is recorded in these letters e.g. Jan 10, 1859) However that arrangement did not last and by January 1860, Thomas Jackson was bemoaning that there had been an unfortunate upset between the two families and he hoped that they could let “bygones be bygones”.

As a result of sharing time together in America, Thomas Jackson may have felt closer to William because sometimes he sent his letters, not to Caleb but to “Cousin Will” after he had returned to England.

Sadly we have no records of any letters sent from Caleb or William Slater to Thomas Jackson. But we do have a good number of photographs of the Slater family from those early days.

This means that we are left with a strange imbalance.
‡ We have many photographs but no letters from the Slater side of this relationship:

‡ And we have many letters but no photographs from the Jackson side.

We would welcome help in finding photographs of Thomas Jackson and his family.