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Name
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Thomas Kelly's Letter from Ohio (1828)
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Description
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In 1827, Thomas Kelly wrote home from Ohio. His letter, published in the Manx Sun on 18 March 1828, was both an invitation and an indictment. He reported that a labouring man could earn in two days enough to keep a family of seven or eight for a week, and that the girls did not work in dunghills like slaves as they did on the Island. He named names — McCrone, the Duke of Atholl's chief tithe proctor. Every comparison between Ohio and Mann was a silent accusation of what Mann had become. Kelly dropped into Manx twice in the letter, the habits of a bilingual mind writing to people who would understand both languages. He recorded that on the first night thirty-three Manx people were in his house, and that Manx was spoken in plenty. The letter was read aloud, as such letters always were, and published in the newspaper — read again in homes and chapels across the northern parishes.
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Date
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1828
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Type
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Primary Source
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Source
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Manx Sun, 18 March 1828
