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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.

Allen, Henry Watkins, 1820-1866 To the planters and slave-owners of Louisiana.

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05987.14 Author/Creator: Allen, Henry Watkins, 1820-1866 Place Written: Shreveport, Louisiana Type: Broadside Date: 29 October 1864 Pagination: 1 p. : Height: 17.7 cm, Width: 22.5 cm Order a Copy

Allen, Governor of Louisiana, implores slave owners to loan their slaves to construct fortifications on the Red River. Promises, "Your negroes will be well treated and well fed. They will be required to labor but sixty days, at the expiration of which time they will be dismissed and returned to their homes... Unless the negroes are promptly sent forward, they will be impressed- the country must be defended."

Allen, Henry Watkins, 1820-1866

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