Author: Annie Henry Christian

In this letter to her brother Patrick Henry, written in September of 1786, Annie Henry Christian expresses grief over her husband William Christian’s death and laments the isolation she feels in Kentucky. Christian also explains what Patrick Henry should do with her children and the people she enslaves in the event of her death.

In this letter written on May 18, 1785, to her sister-in-law Anne Christian Fleming, Annie Henry Christian describes the beginning of her family’s journey west and their plan to spend the summer along the Holston River in present-day eastern Tennessee while sending people they enslave ahead to Kentucky. Christian’s letters to Fleming during her travels remain one of the best first-person accounts of moving west from any woman of the era.