MANUSCRIPT: missing. See note 3 in "Notes on the Present Text." All of the letter above the signature has been published; all below it is unpublished.

PUBLICATION: L (1894) 16-18; LL 118-119, in small part; L (1931) 13-15, dated (presumably by ED): Amherst, Jan. 12, 1846.

Abiah Root was now attending Miss Campbell's School in Springfield, while Sarah Tracy and Harriet Merrill were at a school for girls in Pittsfield. (Letters, ed. 1931, expanded the initials S.T., used in Letters, ed. 1894, to Sarah Taylor). An obituary notice in the Hampshire and Franklin Express reads: "In this town, Jan. 9 [1846], an infant child of Mr. Charles Wilson, aged 7 months. (Colored)." The Reverend Dr. David Parsons was for many years pastor of the First Church. On Osmyn Baker, see the note for letter no. 4. On the death of Seneca Holland's daughter Sophia, see ED's full account in letter no. 11.

Dorcas, in Acts 9.36-43, is described as "full of good works." The Israelites are referred to as a "stiffnecked people" in Deuteronomy 9.6.