Hi Sally,

As defined in the American Heritage Dictionary on my desk,  a "coffle" is a
file of animals, prisoners, or slaves, chained together in transit.  In this
country, it is/was most often used to describe a group of slaves being
transported, sometimes in chains, sometimes not.  I don't recall Hopkins
Nowlin mentioning chains in his letters, but that doesn't mean he wasn't
using them.  As evidenced in the letters he did take care of the slaves,
feeding them well and enlisting the services of a doctor when needed.  Of
course, he exhibited the same care for his race horses -- all were valuable
property in his eyes.

The letters are fascinating to read but having seen the originals, much was
lost in the transcriptions.  Although the gentlemen who transcribed them did
a wonderful job of reading what was, at best, a difficult handwriting, a
certain flavor has been lost.  Despite coming from a well-to-do family,
Hopkins Nowlin was not terribly literate -- his spelling and grammar left
much to be desired; he wrote as he spoke.  The first time I read the
original letters I could almost hear him talking; the transcriptions are,
unfortunately, crisp and clean -- no flavor at all, a real shame.  Still,
the words and history are there and, all that aside, at least the letters
are now preserved.  It took my friend a long time to come to terms with her
family's past.  She doesn't have a racist bone in her body -- slave holding
was bad enough, slave trading was truly horrific.  Her first thought was to
destroy them, but thankfully I convinced her to save them.  Hopefully VHS
will make them available to the public one day soon.

Kathy

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