Serving Buchanan, Serving the Nation, 1857–1860
Serving Buchanan, Serving the Nation, 1857–1860
This chapter delves into Holt's ambivalence about leaving Kentucky behind, most likely for good. In April, he wrote to Margaret, who had felt strong enough in recent weeks to make a visit to her family in Wickland, of his own recent trip to Stephensport. There, he remarked, the old homestead, the place he claimed to have loved “above all others upon the earth,” had “never seemed so beautiful.” Indeed, it was not just the land or the magnificent house that tugged at his heartstrings, either; Holt found himself reluctant, too, to part with the various members of his birth family who remained there, and even the slaves, some of whom had been in his family's possession for many years. It was in saying goodbye to them, Holt confessed, that he realized for the very first time that the last link connecting him to his birthplace had finally been broken, and that, “henceforth, I shall be but a stranger there.”
Keywords: Holt, Kentucky, Margaret, old homestead, birth family, slaves, birthplace
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