Between the Lines

2024

Paper, wood dowels, thread, s hooks, letters and travel diaries of Joseph G. Eastland and Thomas B. Eastland.

From 1847 to 1853, Joseph Green Eastland and his father, Thomas B. Eastland – my third and fourth great-grandfathers respectively - wrote extensive letters and travel diaries, including documentation of their journey in 1849 from Nashville, Tennessee to San Francisco, California in pursuit of gold and commerce. These materials are in the collections of the California Historical Society (CHS). Accompanying them was a Black man named Dow, who was enslaved by my ancestors. He was deeded to Thomas B. Eastland by his father-in-law, Joseph Green, in 1849.

When the trio reached San Francisco that year, the Eastlands hired Dow out for pay at a “coffee shop,” likely a space for drinking and gambling. Dow was around 30 years old at the time. While no written record of his personal thoughts or feelings appears to have survived in the historical record, we know he was gifted in learning languages, as he is credited by the Eastlands as quickly learning Spanish; we also know he was married, as it was mentioned in one of the Eastland’s letters, which originally enclosed a letter from Dow to his wife. It is unknown what happened to Dow, his wife, or his letters, which, unlike the Eastland letters, weren’t preserved at the CHS. These fragments of information about Dow are found within the letters and travel diaries of the two Eastlands, which I have embossed onto the paper in the work. The carbon-traced sections indicate where Dow is mentioned in the Eastland’s writings.

I have chosen to keep the original language used in the primary source documents from the 1800s to provide cultural context and to tell history as transparently as possible, even when it is traumatic and harmful.