Creator: Blackford, James B., collector.
Collection number: 3760-z
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Abstract: Chiefly unrelated 19th-century letters from several different states collected by James Baylor Blackford of Richmond, Va. Topics include politics, military affairs, education, travel, migration within the United States, home life, religion, business, and agriculture. Included are letters referring to political events in Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and North Carolina; preparations for war with Mexico; employment of slaves in Mississippi and discipline of slaves in Texas; the education and social lives of teachers and students in Georgia, Maryland, and North Carolina; travel experiences of visitors to Mississippi, Tennesee, North Carolina, and South Carolina; experiences of men and women who migrated to Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, and California; domestic and family news from people in North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Virginia; and business and agricultural activities and prospects in Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, and California.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Writers and topics include a traveler in Mississippi who refers to the rental of several of his slaves to pick cotton during a temporary layover caused by a local yellow fever epidemic (1833); a slave owner in Shackleford, North Carolina, concerning possible charges brought against a slave for beating a slave owned by the writer (1835); and a Baptist minister in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to a minister in New York, expressing concern over the impact of the abolition movement on missionary efforts (1844).