Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Gibson, Alfred (fl. 1857) to Tobias Gibson

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04501.082 Author/Creator: Gibson, Alfred (fl. 1857) Place Written: Clinton Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 18 May 1857 Pagination: 3 p. : docket ; 25.5 x 20.5 cm. Order a Copy

Hailstorms ruined some of the cotton crop. The cotton gin processes about 12 bales a day. Sickness on the plantation has taken the lives of five slaves, all under the age of four. Albert lost two slaves, one 17 years old and the other 20. A monument was erected at the grave site of Tobias Gibson, the first Methodist Preacher in Mississippi, who has been dead for 50 years. The citizens of Vicksburg are having a reception for Colonel Jeff Davis.

Excerpt:
"I lost five small negroes none over four years old. Albert poor fellow lost two, one seventeen and the other twenty which I gave him, raised pretty much on the place he has lost three grown and three small ones in the last two or three years. ...This is Collonel Jeff Davises reception day in Vicksburg, where they gave him a public dinner...."

Gibson, Randall Lee, 1832-1892

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