Virginia Americana Collection

This collection consists of documents pertaining to the state of Virginia, primarily focused on Henry and Patrick Counties. The papers span the years from 1792 to 1889 and include court documents, a small amount of correspondence, voting records, and bills of sale. The collection does not focus on a specific aspect of Virginia, but provides information on political, commercial, and to some extent, personal experiences in Virginia during the 19th century.



There are many items of note in this collection including a land contract dated 1792 by which trustees of the town of Lynchburg grant title to a one-acre lot. Bills of estate sales in which slaves are among the items sold and a copy of a bond between a governor and three indentured men are also included in the collection. Two letters, one early in the Civil War and another near the end, give eloquent witness to the changed situation of the writer. Detailed voting records from one Virginia county during the decade of the 1880s are also included.