Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Charles Doe. Letter, 1850. Accession 38743, Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Purchased 6 December 2000.

Biographical/Historical Information

Charles Doe was born 4 April 1830 in Derry, New Hampshire, to Joseph Doe and Mary Ricker Doe. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1849 and was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in January 1852. Doe served as the solicitor for Strafford County, New Hampshire and as assistant clerk for the New Hampshire Senate from 1853 to 1854. In 1859 he was appointed an associate judge on the New Hampshire Supreme Judicial Court and served until it was disbanded in 1874. The next two years he returned to private practice. In 1876, Doe was appointed chief justice of the newly created New Hampshire Supreme Court and served until his death. He married Edith Haven 11 April 1865. Doe died in Rollinsford, New Hampshire, 9 March 1896.

Scope and Content Information

Letter, 22 February 1850, from Charles Doe (1830-1896), visiting his brother Thomas (b. ca. 1820) and family in Danville, Virginia, to Eben Ricker Doe of Boston, Massachusetts, commenting on Thomas's family including the arrival of a new child. He states that Thomas's daughters are musically inclined. Doe describes a slave funeral which he notes as being solemn and respectful and states that slaves seldom request a white minister but rely on black preachers for the service. He also describes slave auctions in Danville and how slaves fear being sold south. Doe comments that he believes blacks held in slavery in the United States are more fortunate and better off than free Africans. Doe attended a black church service and remarks that blacks are much better singers than whites. He also notes that the banjo is the musical instrument played most often by blacks and whites.