By Professor William B. Gould IV

Cornelia Williams Read Gould, circa 1890. WBG's wife. She was WBG's most frequent correspondent during the War. Born into slavery in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 30, 1837, she was the daughter of Diana Williams and William Read. In 1858, through the work of her relatives in the North, she is purchased out of slavery and brought to Nantucket. She and WBG knew each other as children but their relationship seems to have flowered after he visits her in Nantucket in May 1863 when his ship is docked in Boston.