A handwritten, eight-page letter from Susan Pringle Alston to her aunt, Rebecca Hayne, in which she describes Union troops and newly freed people raiding and robbing houses while her family was in Plantersville at the end of Civil War. She expresses concern for similar things occurring in Columbia and Darlington, South Carolina.
A handwritten, four-page letter from Emma Alston to her husband, Charles, in which she discusses the possibility for illness, specifically typhus fever, spreading in crowded South Carolina cities. In addition, she expresses her wartime fears and advises him on the management of enslaved people. Attached to this letter is a note requesting that he bring books on farming to Greenville. On the front of the envelope, a list of items is written; on the back, a list of names of enslaved people is written.
A handwritten, four-page letter from Catherine Ravenel to Susan Alston in which she discusses life in Columbia, South Carolina, after the Civil War and shares various pieces of news from families such as the Middletons, Winthrops, Lowndes, and Rutledges.