Brooklyn 1866 (Julius Robinson Letter)

(Julius Robinson is writing his father in Brooklyn Connecticut, where he was raised. His father was an abolitionist and supporter of the Union. Well before the Civil War, his sons went to the South to start businesses and make their fortunes. Some of them returned to CT. When the War broke out, the family was split. Brooklyn Alabama was named after their hometown in Connecticut and was a hotbed of abolitionism. William Lloyd Garrison married a woman from Brooklyn and spent time there.)

“The war has made sad havoc with us. We have created of the South a smothered fire liable at any moment to leap into a flame.

I would at any time have cheerfully given my last dime or even my life for success. The only monument that will ever be erected to the memory of our dead will be in the hearts of their living contemporaries to be transmitted to future generations.

Our only course now is to go to work again like true men, to build up our lost fortunes and to endeavor again to restore our country to its former prosperity.

We will hope for the best.”