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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.

Dederer, N. A., fl. 1862-1863 to Peter B. Rathbone

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04703.05 Author/Creator: Dederer, N. A., fl. 1862-1863 Place Written: s.l. Type: Letter Date: 20 February 1863 Pagination: 4 p. : Order a Copy

Continued 21 February. Receives photographs of his family and comments on their "over sanctimonious countenances." Lists some of his duties including distributing clothing to contrabands, and attending to the complaint of a Negro who was shot by an overseer. Says that Blacks were brought in to repair the levee which burst during the night. "The great annoying question now is how to dispose of these Negroes. The authorities are trying to induce them to return to their former masters and work for small wages..."

Dederer, N. A., fl. 1862-1863
Rathbone, Peter B., fl. 1862-1863

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