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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.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 to Edwin M. Stanton

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03973 Author/Creator: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Letter signed Date: 1864/02/01 Pagination: 1 p. : Height: 24.8 cm, Width: 19.8 cm Order a Copy

Transport to return black colonists from Haiti. The colonists were freed slaves. In 1862, 450 African Americans were recruited to settle on the Island of Vache, off the coast of present-day Haiti. Small pox and mismanagement by a white government-appointed manager contributed to the colony's failure. The transport ship dispatched by President Lincoln picked up only 368 survivors.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Stanton, Edwin M. (Edwin McMasters), 1814-1869

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