A handwritten, five-page letter from Emma Alston to her husband, Charles, in which she expresses her fear that enslaved people will escape immediately if Charles leaves their plantation. She also remarks on the gender imbalance present in Greenville during the war years.
A handwritten, four-page letter from Emma Alston to her husband, Charles, in which she encourages him to provide the enslaved people with milk, meat, tobacco, molasses, and sugar to dissuade them from escaping. She also discusses the general state of their newly acquired farm in Greenville and requests him to send enslaved people to fix it up. On the back of the envelope, a list of names and "by Hands by Charleston South Carolina" is written.