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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.

Hawkins, Benjamin (1754-1816) [Letters to John Hancock and Joseph Martin]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.08213 Author/Creator: Hawkins, Benjamin (1754-1816) Place Written: Hopewell Type: Manuscript document Date: 4-15 January 1786 Pagination: 21 p. ; 32.4 x 20.3 cm. Order a Copy

A set of copied letters to John Hancock and Joseph Martin regarding treaties with the Indians. The first is addressed to Charles Thomson and signed by both Hawkins and Andrew Pickens. The second is addressed to Hancock, dated 4 January 1786 and signed by Hawkins, Pickens and Joseph Martin. The third is dated 14 January of the same year and signed by the same as the previous. The rest are unsigned and dated up to 15 January 1786. Noted as written in Hopewell, a plantation in South Carolina. Evidently relates to one of the three Hopewell Treaties between the U.S. and Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw nations.

Hancock, John, 1737-1797
Hawkins, Benjamin, 1754-1816
Martin, Joseph, 1740-1808
Pickens, Andrew, 1739-1817
Thomson, Charles, 1729-1824

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