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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.

Saxton, Rufus, 1824-1908 To the freedmen in the Department of the South

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03839 Author/Creator: Saxton, Rufus, 1824-1908 Place Written: Beaufort, South Carolina Type: Broadside Date: 6 August 1863 Pagination: 1 p. : Height: 20.2 cm, Width: 12.7 cm Order a Copy

Circular declaring: "The President of the United States having appointed the 6th day of August, 1863, as a day of Public Thanksgiving and Praise for the glorious victories of our armies over the enemies of our country... Although you are still in the wilderness, your prospects for liberty were never brighter than now." Refers to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Saxton, Rufus, 1824-1908
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

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