Analysis Of Letters Of Eliza Yonge Wilkinson

Blood everywhere. Body after body coming inside. The stench of the outside world and sweat fill the noses of the owners. The house soon filled with red and blue Britain uniforms who implemented the Quartering Act upon the properties on American soil, requesting accommodations. During the American Revolution, America’s citizens were compelled to house soldiers who asked for shelter, many of whom reluctantly “welcomed” the British in their homes.
During the spring of 1780, a young woman by the name of Eliza Yonge Wilkinson wrote letters to her friend pertaining her experience during the British invasion. These letters took place six months after her newlywed husband John Wilkinson left for combat, but never returned, leaving her widowed. As

At the beginning of her letters, she states, “As I mean never to forget the loving-kindness and ten-der mercies of the renowned Britons while among as, in the ever-memorable year 1779,” (“Catalog Record: Letters of Eliza Wilkinson, during the invasion and possession of Charleston, S.C., by the British in the Revolutionary War.” Letter 1).Throughout this letter, she describes the memory of the invasion happening three years ago as if it happened yesterday. Wilkinson writes, “They marched with the greatest alacrity imaginable, not re-garding the weather, though the rain poured down inces-santly upon them,” (“Catalog Record: Letters of Eliza Wilkinson, during the invasion and possession of Charleston, S.C., by the British in the Revolutionary War.” Letter 1). She observes them as they march towards her father’s plantation and the way they appear to her, as well as how she saw them in that moment. Later in the letter she wrote, “This created such confusion and distress among us all as I cannot describe,” (“Catalog Record: Letters of Eliza Wilkinson, during the invasion and possession of Charleston, S.C., by the British in the Revolutionary War.” Letter 1). At this point in the letter, Wilkinson describes the fear of families. She describes women and children boarding boats to the ports of Charleston, terrified and hoping for a better outcome for their husbands and sons fighting. Hoping for their young children to having to escape this brutal fate. She includes her sympathy for a woman with seven children with the fear in a mother’s eyes that her one night old baby will not fall into enemy hands. From there, she goes into detail about women and families who suffer. Wilkinson wrote, “But who can forbear the tear of sympa-thy for the distressed families, who are left behind to mourn the fall of those they highly valued, and from whom they derived their support?”