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- Description is exactly "This is a letter written by Neander Rice to Henry Blow that was picked up by the New York Times. According to Florence historian Lee Freeman, "This is a letter written by Neander H. Rice in February of 1866 to Missouri Congressman and former Florentine Henry H. Blow (the Blow family lived in Florence between 1822 and 1831 with their slave Dred Scott and Henry Blow [1817-1875] and his brother assisted Dred in his famous bid for freedom), which was picked up by the New York Times. In this letter, Neander H. Rice (1815-1886), after initial reservations, favorably critiques the policies of moderate Reconstruction Governor of Alabama Lewis Parsons who had been appointed by Pres. Andrew Johnson and served from June until December of 1865. Rice then states that "our free negroes are doing finely. We have no trouble with them; they have all gone to work manfully; they give an impetus to trade that we never before had. I have sold JACK PETERS' [John Peters, the largest slaveowner in Lauderdale County, whose plantation was on Gunwaleford Road] negroes more goods this year and last year than I ever sold PETERS and he owned 450 negroes [according to the 1860 slave census it was 315, still making Peters the largest slaveowner]." Rice however thinks the Freedmen's Bureau is a "perfect humbug . . . . No use for it in the world" and recounts how several local Freedmen approached him with a request that he write a letter to Liberal Republican Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner (1852-1874) to abolish the Freedmen's Bureau (Florence's Bureau agent was Capt. Charles A. Tenge). Ironically, Rice, who in his letter claims not to have been "a follower of Jeff. Davis & Co." nor belonged to "that party known as the Secession Party," though a Unionist, was also himself before the war a slaveowner, and though claiming not to be "much of a politician" would be elected mayor of Florence for two terms (1869-1870; 1871-1873) then serve as Secretary of State of Alabama from 1873-1875.""
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