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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.

Tillotson, George W., 1830-1918 To his wife

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04558.159 Author/Creator: Tillotson, George W., 1830-1918 Place Written: Point of Rocks, [Virginia] Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 4 September 1864 Pagination: 4 p. : Height: 20 cm, Width: 12.5 cm Order a Copy

Continued on Sept. 6. Promoted to first sergeant, regiment moves to Fort Powhattan. Expresses his views on blacks. "I think you must have been delightfully entertained by the "darkies" to form so favorable an opinion of them. I declare you are getting to be as radical as our old Quarter Master used to be. He said he had rather his daughter would marry a negro than a white man. For My part sooner than come to that I would see the whole black rase [sic] exterminated. To be sure the negro is a human being and as such has a right to stay on the footstool, but the farther he gets from me the better it will please me."

Tillotson, George W., 1830-1918

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