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  Enslaved persons bill of sale, Bolivar, Tennessee, 1837

  Bill of sale transferring three enslaved people from S.C. French to Harry Hodge on June 1, 1837, witnessed by Pitser and Austin Miller in Bolivar, Tennessee. Hodge paid $812 for a woman named Renie and her two children, Joe and Jack.

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  Hugh E. Buckingham World War I daybook

  World War I daybook of Captain Hugh Evelyn Buckingham (1893-1974) from Memphis, Tennessee, a staff officer in the 115th Field Artillery. Includes the first two pages of the "Tagebuch" (Buckingham used a German notebook) and a 21-page typed transcription.

  The notebook covers the period May 8 (sailed from Hoboken, New Jersey) to September 30, 1918 (Meuse-­Argonne Offensive), including details of training courses and daily life in the Field Artillery.

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  Letter: Francis Smith, St. Paul, to Marsh, 1860

  Letter from Francis Smith, St. Paul, Minnesota, to Marsh, December 17, 1860. He mentions his new legal career and relationship with the "'boys' with whom I used to run - ...." Misses his Bolivar friends and longs to "eat a small quantity of that North Carolina dirt. They have an article up here that might be called 'Minnesota dirt' with a great degree of propriety - for it is decidedly the dirtiest specimen of the ardent that was ever used by white men. Our people have been taking this secession matter very coolly until recently - but now their eyes are open to the great danger the Confederacy is in and the utmost alarm prevails "among them all. I hate to think of it--much less to speak of it. My only wish is that every abolitionist of the north and fire-eater of the south - that all disunionists per se were buried in one common grave - and buried so deep too, that the resurrection wouldn't reach them. They are a parcel of d - d traitors . . . .I have such a perfect horror of disunion that I get somewhat excited every time I think of it and say more than I really intend to."

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  Letter: Kate Smith, Memphis, to Julia Smith, 1865

  Letter from Kate Smith, Memphis, Tennessee, to Julia Smith, May 29, 1865. She writes: "Memphis will not be pleasant now until about Oct. We have had some very oppressive days even now dry hot and dusty with mosquitoes biting and gnats stinging giving us a foretaste of what is to come. Genl Washburn delivered his farewell order today. You dont know how sorry we all are at his leaving. He has proved that it is not necessary to be disloyal to the Government to be kind to the people . . . I am very sorry that Jeff Davis was caught he was a broken and ruined man it is a pity that he had not escaped to Europe. I was more sorry for the South than the North when Lincoln was assassinated So now I think it a misfortune for the Union that Davis was caught . . . . I am afraid the paroled soldiers and negro soldiers will have trouble they and the white Union soldiers get along very well. The negro question is not solved yet. You can have no idea of how full Memphis is of negroes they are stuck all over every where all the negroes nearly of West Tenn and North Miss are huddled in the army lines . . ."