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.

Drayton, Daniel (b. 1802) Personal memoir of Daniel Drayton, for four years and fours months a prisoner (for charity's sake) in Washington jail...

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05873 Author/Creator: Drayton, Daniel (b. 1802) Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Book Date: 1855 Pagination: 1 v. : 122 p. ; 19.4 x 12.3 cm. Order a Copy

(title continues)... Including a narrative of the voyage and capture of the Schooner Pearl. Published by Bela Marsh. Includes a frontispiece printed portrait of Drayton. Of his attempt to assist a mass slave escape, Drayton writes, "The opportunity occurring, I did not hesitate to improve it; nor have I ever yet seen occasion to regret having done so."

Drayton orchestrated an escape attempted by 77 Washington, D.C. area slaves in 1848.

Drayton, Daniel, 1802-?
Marsh, Bela, 1797-1869

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