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The 17th-20th Century Correspondence and Documents consists of letters, documents, and various forms of correspondence relating to notable names and celebrities from between 1618 and 1981.

Correspondence. This collection is comprised of various groups of letters about Florida, dating between 1837 and 1891 most of which deal primarily with land issues.

Business records and correspondence of Colonel Chandler Holmes Smith, including: personal letters from his wife, children and other relatives; applications addressed to Colonel Smith as Trustee of the Florida State Agricultural College by Lancelot W. Andrews, Ph. D., Cambridge, Mass., for "professorship in chemistry," and by H. N. Felkel, Tallahassee, Florida, "for the chair of English Literature and Elocution"; letters from W. N. Gordon and Co., Cotton Factors and Commission Merchants, Savannah, Ga., Warren and Axson, Commission Merchants, Savannah, Fred H. Hill, Wholesale Grocer, Savannah, Banking House of A. P. Wright and Co., Thomasville, Ga., M. J. Boughton, S. A. Pattison, Daniel Aborr Smith, Stephen S. Smith, and from Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company. Includes material previously described as MSS 1-21.

The collection's two major groupings of papers are Antebellum and Civil War newspapers in OS Box 1 and Gilded Age, Progressive, and 20th century newspapers in OS Box 2. The majority of the papers are from the southern states in the United States. OS Box 3 is photostat copies of its contents.

The Mount Vernon Plantation (the name was later changed to Pickney Hills) was located in Jefferson County about seven miles east of Monticello, Florida with a view overlooking "Razor Lake," so named by Mr. Hollingsworth because of its shape. The number of enslaved peoples listed, the livestock listed, records of sales of farm products, purchases of supplies, and descriptions of different parcels of land shown in the Last Will of John Hollingsworth indicate that Mount Vernon Plantation covered rather extensive acreage. The will also shows that he owned a home near Edgefield, South Carolina, which was situated on "about eleven hundred acres."

This item is a manuscript application by T. B. Wheelock, 1st Lieutenant, Dragoons, Black Creek, Clay County, East Florida dated June 4, 1836, to the Hon. Lewis Cap, Secretary of War, Washington, D.C., in which he states that he has heard that a new Regiment of Dragoons is being formed, and "I beg leave to request to be considered a candidate for a captaincy." This application pertains to the Seminole War in Florida. The reverse side is stamped "Steam-Boat" and is post-marked Charleston, S.C., indicating that it was taken on board a river boat and transported to Charleston to connect with regular mail.

The papers consist of certificates of purchases of land, a certificate commissioning Scarborough as Captain of a volunteer infantry company, land deeds, Territorial Florida manuscripts, a picture of Mrs. M.L. Scarborough, newspapers and clippings, personal letters, reports of blankets, provisions, and clothing required by Floridians in prison at Fort Delaware, promissory notes, receipts, invoices, and a typed copy of "Express-Supplement", a letter to an unknown newspaper editor by William T. Gregory in 1860, pertaining to the proposed secession from the Union by Florida and other states.

Includes materials on the American Civil War, the Bradford-Eppes family including Susan Bradford Eppes and Dr. Edward Bradford, plantation life, land and mortgages, banking, tomb inscriptions from the cemetery in Pine Hill, Florida, sheet music for "Twenty Years Ago" by J. E. McCullune, pamphlets from Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida, as well as genealogical data on the Eppes-Bradford family. Photographs include members of the Bradford-Eppes family, John Wilkes Booth, Louise Covington, and a United States Coast Guard Signal Service Station in Palm Beach, Florida. Includes manuscripts for the books Negro of the Old South and Through Some Eventful Years, both by Susan Bradford Eppes.

This collection is comprised of the background files, notes, correspondence, permission, maps, manuscripts, and other materials that were collected or created by Clifton Paisley during the writing of his work, Red Hills of Florida. Included among these items are biographical sources, census data, maps and surveys of the Red Hills region, letters to and from local organizations and persons, newspapers, and interviews. The majority of the collection consists of those materials which actually played a part in the publication of the book. These items include notes, manuscripts, galley proofs, camera ready copies, and photographs mainly dating from the 1970s and 1980s when the book was being compiled and published.

The Roderick Kirkpatrick Shaw "Estate Division of Slaves" authorizes Gadsden County Commissioners Thomas Munroe, William F. Bull and Hudson Muse to divide the enslaved persons belonging to the estate of the late Roderick K. Shaw into three equal portions and distribute them to Shaw's two sons, Roderick Gosporo Shaw and James Kirkpatrick Shaw, and to John H. Smith, husband of R. K. Shaw's daughter, Jesse Shaw Smith.