Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This collection contains the correspondence of Joshua Noble Danforth, a Presbyterian minister and agent for the American Colonization Society.

The Joshua Danforth papers (69 items) contain 63 letters, 2 issues of The African Repository, and 4 miscellaneous items, all concerning Joshua Noble Danforth, a Presbyterian minister and agent for the American Colonization Society. The bulk of the collection documents Danforth's activities as agent for the Society from 1832-1834. Agents stationed in other cities described the Society's endeavors and their reception in New England, while communications from Ralph Gurley, at the society's Washington headquarters, addressed the society's activities at a national level. The letters concern conditions of colonization and education in Liberia, freed slaves, legislative plans, contemporary attitudes toward the society and its goals, fundraising, society administration, and the appointment of officers.

Letters in this collection are from, among many others, such notable people as George Grennell, a U.S. Congressman and trustee of Amherst College; Samuel Lathrop, a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts as well as a lawyer and Massachusetts State Senator; David L. Morril, a U.S. Senator from and governor of New Hampshire; and Samuel Wells, who later became governor of Maine. One particularly noteworthy letter is from, as Danforth writes on the cover, "a Negro signing himself ‘Justice’ complaining of the [American Colonization] society.” In this letter, from Charleston on July 8, 1832, the author asks Danforth: "Did Christ die for the Black man?" and elegantly writes: "Sir, I claim not equal rank with you for talent, and my information is verry limited: but I do fear that you are honestly engaged in a most unholy cause; no more no less than at driving (or attempting to drive; for it can never be effected) almost 3,000,000 of natives of this soil to the sickly clime of Africa."

In addition to Danforth's professional letters are approximately 13 personal letters to Danforth, his wife, and his family from various correspondents, including Ralph Gurley. Personal correspondents for Danforth and his wife include their siblings and other family members. The bulk of the collection's personal correspondence comes after 1834.

Printed material consists of two issues of The African Repository, the publication of the American Colonization Society. The 1852 issue (volume 28) is signed by Danforth. The second issue is from 1862 (volume 38).

The Miscellaneous series contains undated writings including a "Sermon for the Blacks," a list of goals of the Colonization movement, and a letter to the editor of the Gazette entitled The Way to Do Certain Things.

The Preston Woodward correspondence contains letters by Paul S. Preston and Jackson Woodward, mainly discussing political topics such as the Mexican-American War, the Locofocos, and elections.

The Preston-Woodward correspondence contains letters written to Jackson Woodward by Paul S. Preston and business letters addressed to Woodward. The earliest items in the collection relate to Nathaniel A. Woodward of Bethany, Pennsylvania. Of these early letters, two from 1836 (also addressed to Jacob Faatz and Lucius Collins) discuss the election of delegates to amend the Pennsylvania state constitution and, to a lesser extent, national politics prior to the 1836 presidential election. The bulk of the collection pertains to Jackson Woodward, a lawyer from Honesdale, Pennsylvania, including incoming business-related correspondence and a personal letter from his brother, W. Woodward. Of particular interest within the collection are 58 letters composed by Paul S. Preston, as well as two by Jackson Woodward, discussing contemporary politics and prominent national and local political figures. Preston, who lived in Stockport, Pennsylvania, often took a scathing and humorous tone, as in his letter of November 29, 1845, in which he claimed that "since the day that the iron willed Tennessean, your illustrious namesake [Andrew Jackson] dressed despotism in the garb of Democracy, there is very little difference between an Emperor and a President."

A number of Preston's letters criticize the Locofocos, a radical wing of the Democratic Party founded in 1835 to protect the interests of workers and oppose monopolies and tariffs. Preston frequently characterized them as hypocritical, as in a letter of February 18, 1847, in which he compared the high salaries paid to Locofocoism's "panderers" and low wages earned by American soldiers fighting in Mexico. Preston also praised the Whig generals in the Mexican-American war as aggressive fighters (October 28, 1847), and included political poetry in several of his letters. His letter of January 2, 1850, contains a humorous petition in verse. Scattered letters concern presidential and midterm elections, and a lengthy letter of January 22, 1851, compares the attitudes of Yankees and Southerners, offering the opinion that the Southerners underestimate their dependence on slaves. On January 7, 1851, Preston criticized the Fugitive Slave Law and expressed his unwillingness "to be turned into a hound to run down a runaway negro."

Although the letters provide a much clearer picture of Preston than Woodward, the two men seemed to have held differing opinions on many issues, including slavery. In one of the two items he wrote, dated September 23, 1852, Woodward defended the Fugitive Slave Law and called abolitionism a "most mischievous, damnable doctrine."

The Quaker Collection consists of miscellaneous letters, diaries, and documents relating to the religious and social history of the Society of Friends in America during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Quaker collection consists of miscellaneous letters, diaries, and documents related to the religious and social history of the Society of Friends in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. These items offer insights into Quaker's daily activities and concerns, such as family life, education, and attending meetings, as well as their participation in various social reform movements, such as abolition, treatment of Native Americans, prison improvements, temperance, and pacifism. The collection also documents internal divergences of American Quakerism in the 19th century, particularly the social and doctrinal disputes that culminated in the Hicksite and Wilburite schisms.

• 1707: A manuscript copy of the death warrant of William Leddra, the last of four Quakers (including Mary Dyer) executed in Massachusetts Bay colony for their religious beliefs
• July 26, 1755: A letter from Alexander Colden to Sir William Johnson voicing frustration with Quakers who refuse to support the war effort in Pennsylvania, and an announcement of General Braddock's defeat
• August 4-12 and 17, 1761: Two accounts, one by an anonymous woman, of Quaker presence at Treaty negotiations held at Easton, Pennsylvania, between the government of Pennsylvania and the Six Nations tribes. Discussed are the negotiations, Quaker-Indian interactions, and the role of Quaker women in the Society
• [After 1770]: An account by an anonymous author of a conference with Native Americans, mostly of the Minnisink Tribe
• October 13, 1829: A letter from Phoebe Post Willis of Jericho, New York, to Isaac Post on the death of John Hicks and strife between Orthodox and Hicksite Quakers
• March 10, 1843: A letter from Ethan Foster of Westerly, Rhode Island, to Thomas B. Gould on Wilburite-Gurneyite strife in his local meeting, and the disownment of Wilbur
• [After 1863 July]: A letter describing a meeting between Abraham Lincoln and five Quaker prisoners of war, who had been forced into the Confederate army, captured by the Union, and held at Fort Delaware
• Various dates: Reports, minutes, and epistles from yearly friends meetings in America and Great Britain

The Warder-Haines papers (178 items) contain letters collected by Elizabeth Haines Warder, a Quaker from southeastern Pennsylvania, concerning her extended family and friends, primarily between the 1820s and 1850s. Much of the collection consists of letters between the women of the families concerning sickness, death, childbirth, and personal matters, as well as the anti-slavery movement, science and medicine, and Quakerism in Germantown, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati.

The Warder-Haines papers (178 items) contain letters collected by Elizabeth Haines Warder, a Quaker from southeastern Pennsylvania, concerning her extended family and friends, primarily between the 1820s and 1850s. Much of the collection consists of letters between the women of the families (mothers, daughters, sisters, cousins, and friends). The women discussed family issues such as sickness and health, death, childbirth, and personal matters, as well as the anti-slavery movement, science and medicine, and Quakerism in Germantown, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. Dr. John A. Warder contributed twelve letters, all written to his wife Elizabeth during her visits to family members, and during his travels as physician and lecturer in medicine. These relate to everyday family matters and rarely touch on his professional and scientific interests. Topics of note include descriptions of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, written by family members during their sojourn in the winter of 1836-1837. The family also discussed a cholera, or possibly typhoid fever, epidemic in Cincinnati from 1850 to 1852.

• October 30, 1798: Sarah Hartshorne of New York to Elizabeth Bowne concerning sickness and recovery
• July 11, 1828: Oliver Armstrong to Jeremiah and John A. Warder containing a description of Springfield, Ohio
• April 18, 1830: Elizabeth B. Haines to her mother Jane Haines reporting on social events in New York City, such as a party that lasted until 3am and visiting the American Museum
• February 14, 1832: Elizabeth W. Janney to Ann Aston Warder concerning family news and charitable donations, including $300 to a "Black orphan shelter"
• February 16, 1832: Caroline Cadbury to Ann Aston Warder containing family news, including ailments and treatments of many family members, and a mention of her children enjoying Peter Parley's 1st Book of History
• March 7, 1832: John H. Warder to Jeremiah Warder reporting that sister Betsey took in a "runaway negro" but found out that she had "run away from Justice instead of Slavery[.] They have so much difficulty in procuring servants they think but to keep her until they meet with another"
• July 26, 1832: Benjamin H. Warder to Jeremiah Warder concerning the opinions in Philadelphia about President Jackson, and a cholera epidemic in New York that is a "blessing in disguise in clearing off a mass of pollution--It has been very fatal in the neighborhood of the five points, occupied principally by prostitutes…"
• September 1, 1832: Benjamin H. Warder to Jeremiah Warder containing treatments for cholera and typhoid fever
• October 29 and December 6, 1832: Letters from James, John H., and Benjamin Warder to Jeremiah Warder discussing Andrew Jackson's presidential reelection chances, Jackson's attack on the United States Bank and South Carolina's reaction to the speech, and various Quaker affairs
• October 1834: Remarks about the death of Reuben Haines on a funeral invitation from Walter R. Johnson
• December 3, 1836: Friend to Ann A. Warder in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, warning her to "guard thy tongue- thy looks- even thy thoughts since they will be known through thy frank nature as if the spies of the inquisition were around thee- let Slavery and all its evils- Jacksonism and Van Bur-moral degradation and all other evils- pass unnoticed- for although- those outlaws- may not attack thee- yet the Doctor must pay the penalty of your impudence…"
• December 23, 1836: [Ann A. Warden] to Jane B. Haines, containing a humorous descriptions of her family's squalid living conditions in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
• March 3, 1837: John A. Warder and Elizabeth Haines Warder to John Haines describing the relationship between slaves and their masters and the workings of the cotton gin
• December 25, 1837: John Warder to Ann Haines, discussing Christmas presents and details of her young daughter's clothing
• September 20, 1838: J.B. Haines to Elizabeth Haines Warder discussing family news and describing their garden and the viewing of an eclipse
• November 20, 1838: Ann Haines to Elizabeth Haines Warder with a description of a "new method of walking upon water, by means of a small balloon attached to the body" invented in Germany, and a discussion of Democratic Congress member Charles Ingersol
• April 13, 1840: J.S. Haines to Elizabeth Haines Warder with a description of an experiment with "Jacoby's batteries" and the process of electroplating with copper
• October 11, 1840: Sister to Elizabeth Haines Warder with a mention of cousin Ann, who is a member of the Liberia School Association
• August 16, 1842: Elizabeth B. Warder to Ann Haines containing a description of an attempted hypnotism, then termed "neurology" and "phreno-mesmirism"
• November 2, 1842: Elizabeth Haines Warden to Ann Haines, concerning Henry Clay and John Crittenden visiting Cincinnati, searching for fossils, and seeing a "beautiful Exhibition of Deguerin [Daguerreian] Pictures accompanied by fine music" (early photography)
• January 11, 1843: William Warder to his brother John Warder discussing Transcendentalist philosophy and "eclecticism"
• March 19, 1843: Charles Comte de Miollis to Jane B. Haines describing his visits to General Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage
• July 15, 1843: Ann A. Warder to Ann Haines concerning her sons strong anti-slavery beliefs
• February 12, 1844: Mary W. Rannels to Ann Haines about practicing hypnosis and witnessing "the evils of slavery" in St. Louis, Missouri
• March 18, 1844: John A. Warder and Elizabeth Warder to Ann Haines discussing their opinions of a new Charles Dickens book entitled A Christmas Carol
• February 15, 1847: Ann A. Warder to Ann Haines concerning travel in the Mid-West, slavery in St. Louis and the "delusive dogma of the slaveholder"
• January 21, 1849: Jane Haines to Robert B. Haines concerning an expedition of Quakers to California during the Gold Rush
• [1854]: J.B. Haines to Elizabeth Haines Warder concerning a sick child and the practice of medical bleedings

• February 15, 1837: Diagrams of a person feeding cotton into a cotton gin, and related sketches of a wheel and set of bars
• June 5, 1839: Map of Shelby County, Indiana, with notes on type and quality of land, buildings, roads, and watercourses: Sections 4, 5, 8, 9, Town 11, Range 8, 2nd Meridian of Lands Lying 5 Miles Northw From the Se Corner of Shelby County And 1 Mile West From the East Corner of Shelby County 2 Miles West of St Omars, 2 Miles South From Middletown, 60 Miles Nw From Lawrenceburg & Madison. 1839.