The recipient of the letters in this collection, an African-American woman named Hattie Aiken Robinson, was born ca. 1887-1890 in Bossier Parish in northwest Louisiana. She was the daughter of William and Nancy Aiken, both of whom were born in the Antebellum period, most likely as bondsmen. According to the 1910 Federal census the couple had 15 children over the course of their marriage, ten of whom were then living. The same census identifies William Aiken as a farmer, working his own land (near Plain Dealing in Bossier Parish). Hattie Aiken, then in her early 20s and living on the family farm, is identified as a laundress. Shortly thereafter Hattie married Cleveland C. Robinson (b. 1884); by the late 'teens the couple was living in Texarkana, Miller County, Arkansas, with a son (Lloyd, b. ca. 1912) and a daughter (Eva Vashti, b. ca. 1915). Cleveland Robinson was employed by the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, as porter, brakeman, and perhaps in other capacities. At some point, probably before 1930, Cleveland separated from the family in Texarkana, for reasons which are alluded to (but can scarcely be confirmed by) the letters. In 1934 he was living in St. Louis. By 1935 the two children had also left Texarkana. Eva Robinson attended college in Houston prior to beginning work as an elementary school teacher, first in the small town of Tollette in Howard County, Arkansas (Spring 1936) and subsequently in the larger town of Osceola, across the state in Mississippi County. In 1935 Lloyd Robinson followed the Great Migration north to Chicago, settling on the city's South Side and marrying an Arkansas woman named Bernice. At the end of 1936 Hattie Robinson was still in Texarkana.