Autograph letter signed : Florence, to "Mia amata Figlia" [Joan Severn], 1890 Jan. 31.

Discussing Severn's health and mentioning the improved condition of her "D.P.," John Ruskin. Lamenting the scattering and loss of Francesca's Roadside Songs manuscript, noting that Swett will "spare no pains and no money" to reproduce and preserve this "best work of F[rancesca]'s life." Asking Severn to keep this discussion about Roadside Songs a secret from Ruskin. Discussing Americans and slavery, noting that abroad the "distinction is so little understood between slave holders and others," and that "this generation, if not their children, must pass away before the degrading effects of slavery on the whites as well as the blacks will cease." Describing the American Civil War as "simply a war for or against slavery," stating that "the south 'seceeded,' refusing to recognize the right of the government to interfere in this matter, and to prevent that the slave trade, with all its horrors, should be resumed in the south." Asking what the Severns thought of Virginia, noting that "the fertile land was all worn out by bad cultivation, the whites being ignorant and lazy as well as the blacks." Recommending that Severn read Fanny Kemble's Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation, though noting that it is not a book for Severn's "children to see."