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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.

Boggs, Francis, fl. 1814 to Daniel Fisher

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00890 Author/Creator: Boggs, Francis, fl. 1814 Place Written: Puerto Rico Type: Autograph letter signed Date: March 8, 1814 Pagination: 2 p. : address : docket ; Height: 30 cm, Width: 22 cm Order a Copy

Boggs wrote this letter as a United States seaman being held as a prisoner of war on a British ship during the War of 1812. He comments on the war and asks for assistance in getting released. He discusses the miseries of the prisoners' situation over the last fifteen months, being forced to work with enslaved individuals in service of the British government and having to impress men for service in the British armed forces. He asks for aid for their families, and notes that the two prisoners with him are named Parker Wilcox and William Fox. Fisher is identified as a major.

Boggs, Francis, fl. 1814
Fisher, Daniel, fl. 1814
Wilcox, Parker, fl. 1814
Fox, William, fl. 1814

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