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This collection features a single letter written by Charles H. Lloyd, addressed to his uncle, Samuel Breese of Oneida, New York. Lloyd writes from Harrisonburg, Virginia, asking his uncle for funds to return to New York as he cannot find other employment. He writes, " I am situated so that I cannot move at all. I have tried to get a situation here in place... but unsuccessfully and all because I am not a good writer & bookkeeper. I feel very anxious indeed to get back to New York but Mr. Bailey has no money to pay my expenses back and can not let me have it for 6 or 8 weeks." Rufus W. Bailey, a Virginia American Colonization Society Agent, employed Lloyd.

This collection includes individual or small collections of letters to the Custis, Lee, Davidson, McDowell, Reid, and Hale families. Subjects include the Custis family involvement in the American Colonization Society, John Brown's Raid as recounted by V.M.I. cadet Charles A. Davidson of Lexington, Va., Henry "Lighthorse Harry" Lee's life, Lee family genealogy, Anne Lee Marshall's death, the Markoe family of Baltimore, Md.,Edgar Allan Poe, and Washington College (Va.) history including a letter from Cyrus Hall McCormick. The material was found in upstate New York in the mid 20th century and given to Washington and Lee University Archives in 2013.

The Hugh Adams Papers archive is comprised of approximately 75 documents concerning the emancipation of nineteen slaves of the Adams estate and their estate imposed emigration to Careysburg, Liberia. Adams was actively involved for many years with the American Colonization Society ( A.C.S.) which promoted and engaged in the emigration process of free or freed African-Americans to Liberia on the west African coast. Included in the archive is an original handwritten copy of the will of Hugh Adams. Within the will, Adams settles his estate and specifically outlines his plan for emancipating his slaves and for funding their imposed emigration. The archive also contains account documents for living expenses of nine of the nineteen freed slaves during the interim period between emancipation and their voyage to Liberia in May 1860.The surnames of the emancipated persons and families are Adams, Miles, Halliburton, Lewis, and Johnston or Johnson. Other noteworthy contents include an official Rockbridge County manumission document and two contracts detailing the purchase of enslaved husbands by their wives who were emancipated and funded by Adams' will. Other individuals whose names are found on documents within this archive include Rockbridge County lawyers Greenlee Davidson and David P. Curry, lawyers 'Gilkeson and McNutt', possibly of Augusta County, Virginia, Rockbridge County officials Samuel McDowell Reid, Charles Chapin, and David J. Whipple, estate executors A.M. Carson and Robert Hutcheson, and A.C.S. secretary Reverend William McLain. Click here to access the Hugh Adams Papers in WLU's Digital Archive.

The Mason papers consist of 26 items, 1798-1847, chiefly correspondence between General John Mason, one time Superintendent of the Indian Department and his son, James Murray Mason(1798-1871), the U.S. Senator and Confederate diplomat, on personal and financial affairs. Six of the letters are from John Mason's friend, Richard Rush(1780-1859), in London, England, as minister to Great Britain, discussing political affairs in Londonand the United States, including frequent mention of the American Colonization Society, the African Institution, William Wilberforce, and Sir Charles McCarthy. One letter, dated March 13, 1813, is from Ely Magruderin Barbados, West Indies, to James Madison, answering charges that he acted as a secret agent of the United Statesgovernment and commenting on wartime conditions there. Another from Senator John Taylor of Caroline, 1803, requests information on a Virginia-Maryland boundary dispute; and three 1847 letters discuss the collection of a debt by John Jordan Crittenden. There is also a facsimile of the Non-Importation Resolutions of 1765.

Journal of Dr. John Moore McCalla, documenting his trip to Liberia in a sailing vessel along with recaptured Africans, sponsored by the American Colonization Society. Includes a brief biography of McCalla by Helen Goldsborough and copies of the following photographs: Dr. McCalla; the sister ship to "The Star of the Union", on which he sailed; his passport; Kru houses and a Kru village in Liberia; and the American Colonization Society in Washington.