For nine years, Primus and Brown used thick sheets of stationary blanketed with words to nurture their friendship, craft strategies for coping with the rigors of life in the urban North and strengthen each other's soul.
Brown's letters began in 1859, but there is little mention of politics, the raging Civil War or the men who were engaged in battle, says Hansen. "Once the troops came home, there was much more dialogue and a heightened discussion of race" in the letters.
Upon the arrival of a regiment of Black soldiers at Hartford, Addie captured the harshness of the day in this letter to Rebecca: "Every other person we met had nigger in his or her mouth. They was so mad to think the white was compel to make a fuss over them. On our return home some of them said nigger to us. Aunt Emily [one of Rebecca's aunts] ask them if that was what they had for their supper ... the colored people came from all direction."
Although the letters were written more than a century ago, they continue to speak volumes about the basis of "intensity of Black women's friendships," says Griffin.
In this century, Griffin turned thumbs down on the message the film "Waiting to Exhale" conveyed about the depth of the friendships that exist among contemporary Black women.
"I didn't like the movie. The basis of Black women's relationships today and in the movie is largely about lamenting the absence of Black men."
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