Letter from Martha Coletrane to Governor Zebulon B. Vance
Nov the 18 1862
stae of Northcarolina Randolph Co
Dear sir this is a greate undertaking for me as i never wrote to a man of authority before necesity requires it of me as we are nonslave holders in this section of the State i hope you and our legislature will look to it and have justice done our people as well as the slaveholders i can tel you the condition of my family and you can judg for your self what its condition woul be if my husban is called from home we hav eight children and the oldest is not forteen years old and an old aged mother to support, which makes eleven in our family and without my husband we are a desolate and ruined family for extortion runs so hie here we cannot support and clothe our family without the help of my husband i hope you will look to the justice of the peepils of this section of the state and i trust you will hold the rane in your own hands and not let the confederate congress have the full sway over your State i appeal to you to look to the white cultivators as strictly as congress has to the slaveholders and i think they men from 35 to 45 be hel as reserves at hom to support their families if the are calld from home it is bound to leave a thoasn families in a starving condition in our county we trust in god and look to you for some help for our poor children . . .
