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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.

Johnson, Woodson (fl. 1820-1864) [Collection of Woodson Johnson] [Decimalized .01- .65]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09302 Author/Creator: Johnson, Woodson (fl. 1820-1864) Place Written: s.l. Type: Header Record Date: 1820s-1864 Pagination: Order a Copy

Materials including 1850s ledger book, dozens of letters, and slave bills of sale from tobacco planter and slave dealer in Pittsylvania Co., Va., and Rockingham Co., N.C. Archive includes: Johnson's ledger book from the 1850s, recording debts for various plantation items as well as household goods, sales of tobacco and brandy, and dozens of entries re hiring of negro slaves, expenses, recording labor usage, etc.; Watson, F.W. ALS, dated 5-31-1850: "I sold Bob the day after you started…for $750, believing it was better to take that price than to risk his going back to Guilford where he might meet with some fool that might shot him...." 1p.; Holderly, J.S. ADS, dated 12-5-1855: "I will proceed to hire out for the year 1856, to the highest bidder, at the House of Mrs. Mary Ann Carine, Ten Negroes, consisting of men, women & children," as Administrator of estate of Dr. J. Carne. 1p.; Reed, Alfred ALS to Woody Johnson: "I send you Mr. Martial's speech he is an old line Whig I hope you will read and reflect on the same and do as seemeth best. Also Mr. Hallett. He was the man that drew up the Cincinnati platform and I think he ought to know what it meant. I do honestly think every slave holder in the south should vote, and everybody also for Breckenridge & Lane and save the Union."

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