April 1860

[Received a] letter from Brown, Florida. Wanted me to write to Major George T. Ward, [1] Tallahassee & to Rev. O. P. Thackhard, Fernandina, Florida for [a teaching] situation.

April 6, 1860

April 10, 1860

Edward McCandless shit his breeches in school today which created a very unpleasant odor throughout the school.

April 11, 1860

Had a talk with Mr. Mack. [Editor’s Note: From this point forward, Ralph Goodrich often referred to Mr. McCandless as “Mr. Mack.”] Said he wanted me till the end of the month & if I got a place I could leave before that time.

April 12, 1860

April 16, 1860

April 17, 1860

Mr. Mack says that the Bishop [Thomas Frederick Davis] refuses to give a recommendation at all, but he will endorse all that Mr. Mack says. I think that Mr. [George T.] Ward will not answer until he receives the recommendation & possibly I will be disappointed in the place.

April 20, 1860

Mr. Mack said [the class] would debate next Friday. The question [will be] “whether the slaves or the Indians were the worst treated” and at the same time said that the same persons who are arrayed against slavery are the ones who have placed the Indians where they are. At the time I thought it displayed no delicate feeling toward me. I would not mind it if the people would [take] my opinions as they really are, but they consider every northern person against them & with[out] hesitation call them all the opposers of slavery & course society – persons to be suspected until they have shown themselves worthy of confidence.

April 25, 1860

The slaves are obliged to have a pass if they are out after 9 o’clock in the evening or else they are lodged in the lockup till morning & if they were not furnished with a pass through mistake, then are merely sent away. But if not, they get a round drubbing.

April 27, 1860

Received a letter from Mr. [George] Ward, Tallahassee, stating the salary & if the recommendation was sufficient would engage me. Answered the letter for Mr. [George] Ward accepting the offer. I await favorable answer from him.

April 28, 1860

The Southerners consider all the Northern people in the same light; as a scheming Yankee – a close, money-making race [and] one that will stick to the cent and ½ cent. And also in politics, they think of them all (and call them all) abolitionists.

[1] Major George Taliaferro Ward, born about 1810, a native of Kentucky and an 1824 graduate of Transylvania University in Lexington, moved to Leon County, Florida and became a prominent banker and planter. He married Sarah Jane Chaires and took ownership of Southwood, a sprawling plantation east of Tallahassee with a large inventory in slaves. He made an unsuccessful bid for the Governor’s office in 1852 as a Whig. When the Civil War broke out, he raised troops for the Confederacy and became Colonel of the 2nd Florida Infantry. He was killed at the Battle of Williamsburg in May, 1862.

[2] Victor Eugene Manget was Mr. McCandless’s teaching assistant who shared a room with Goodrich in the McCandless home. Manget was born 14 August 1837 in France and came to the United States prior to 1844. He appears in the 1850 census with his parents (Victor Hypolite Manget and Felicia DuBochet) and five younger siblings in Richland County, South Carolina, where his father's occupation is given as a "Professor of Languages" at a Female Institute. Victor E. Manget graduated from the Citadel in 1857, and taught "French" in McCandless's school in Camden, South Carolina, until taking a position at the Georgia Military Institute (GMI) where his father was engaged teaching French and History until his death in 1864. Victor E. Manget taught French at the GMI until joining Caper's Battalion, Georgia Militia, as Captain of Company B. This unit served the Confederacy in the last year of the war, though Manget's service was cut short when he was taken prisoner on 24 February 1865 and transferred to Fort Delaware. He was imprisoned there until 17 June 1865 when he took the Oath of Allegiance and was released. Victor E. Manget married Eliza DePass of Camden, South Carolina and they had ten children. They are buried in Citizen's Cemetery in Cobb County, Georgia, along with his parents.

The Diaries of Ralph Leland Goodrich, 1859-1867