Letter from W. A. Powell near Tuscumbia, Alabama, to his brother, Thomas Weldon Powell, in Hendersonville, Virginia.
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@ Alabama Department of Archives and History, 624 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36130
Description
In the letter Powell explains that he has moved from Huntsville to Franklin County near Tuscumbia and Florence ("they are even now places of great trade and considerable importance but are waging an eternal war against each other - which will eventually predominate is at this time uncertain"), a few miles east of the Chickasaw Indians. He describes the availability and cost of the land, as well as its resources and potential: "This section of country is considered the most desirable part of Alabama - indeed it is almost a Paradise - it being entirely below the Muscle Shoals...and consequently at the head of Steamboat navigation - the country is certainly much more healthy than where we were raised - the lands rich and fertile in the extreme, and well adapted to the culture of cotton which you know is the Staple of our country. It is no hard matter to make more than we can pick out by the next planting time besides plenty of corn &c." Powell suggests that his brother move to Alabama (first "sending as many hands as you can conveaniently [sic] purchase and settle them near me where I can superintend them"); discusses family and mutual acquaintances; and scolds his brother for not writing more often: "...the apology contained in your letter for being a 'bad correspondent' is not entirely satisfactory: but I dismiss the subject hopeing [sic] an apology will not hereafter be necessary for a good one can hardly be offered for not...
Text
600 Ppi Tiff
1824 July 12 1824 07 12
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