A letter written from Lawrence, Kansas, by M.R. Brown, addressed to her son, William Brown, who was in college in New York. Brown begins by discussing the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. She discusses the 300 African Americans who had fled slavery and were now living in Lawrence, and the efforts of an African-American minister in the community. Brown expresses fear that Lawrence would be attacked by Missourians. She also gives news of Leigh R. Webber, a Kansas soldier who often wrote to members of the Brown family.