[ Autographs ] FORMER SLAVE WRITES ALEXANDER STEPHENS An uncommon A.LS. 4pp. 4to., Crawfordville, Ga., Jan. 14, 1881, in which Eliza Stephens writes to her former master, Past Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens. In part: "...Dear Old Master: My departed husband has been dead now two years - he left me a forlorn widow with a small earthly possession; it seems that all men accept those few to whom I look for protection are trying to rob me of that. You left Spence to attend my dray business with the understanding thathe was to bear half the expence for keeping up the team ...now he denies that to be the bargain ...I have ...taken my team from Spence and employed cousin Richard Mercer ... Please write me what to do, I am nearly crazy over my condition. The coal is hauled up and is in thecoal house. I took three loads, hauled two loads home, and Mr. Tom Bristow borrowed a load from me. He said he would write to you about this ... ". Stephens was known for the humane treatment of his slaves,and several of them are known to have maintained contact with him in the years after the Civil War. Eliza Stephens is writing from Crawfordville, where Stephen's plantation was located, as Stephens wasin Congress at Washington, D.C. at this time, and couldn't be directlyconsulted on the matters in the letter. Very good, with possible docketing by Stephens on verso.