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The Charles Machin memoir - in narrative form - documents the personal, financial, and business-related trials of an early 19th century trader of a variety of goods, including cotton, slaves, and mahogany.

The Charles Machin memoir was written in an engaging, literary style, its strength lying in its ability to put the reader into the mind of an early 19th-century trans-Atlantic merchant. It is possible that Machin embellished the truth to make for better reading.

English in origin, Machin lived and traded in Savannah, Charleston, New York, Philadelphia, Jamaica, Havana, and England, moving easily among the port cities, raising capital and stores for trading voyages that inevitably went sour. Through his adventures, Machin emerges as a likable, but not always reputable man who beat and threatened the lives of his debtors and was willing to engage in smuggling cotton and slaves. At the same time, he was constantly surprised by the unethical behavior of his partners and their willingness to hurt others in the name of profit. Machin was repeatedly caught up in the machinations of other, more ruthless merchants.

The memoir provides insight into the financial wrangling, legal and extralegal, of merchants and entrepreneurs. The networks of friendships and false-friendships, the schemes to raise money, and the ideas about profit and risk are all important in situating the mind of the early American merchant. In some ways, Machin was the proverbial man without a country who either easily switched identities or whose identity changed with the context: an Englishman, a some-time resident of Savannah, and a trader in any port or enterprise that promised a good return.

Machin's memoir also includes some excellent descriptions of life in the several ports and countries he visited, most notably of Havana and other locations in Cuba, but also of Jamaica, Cartagena, and the far interior of Georgia and South Carolina.

The Irving collection consist of three volumes of outgoing correspondence written from Liverpool, England, and Jamaica, 1809-1816. These volumes are a resource for understanding the mentality of a Jamaican sugar planter during the years following the cessation of the British slave trade.

The Jacob Aemilius Irving Letterbooks consist of three volumes of out-going correspondence written from Liverpool, England, and Jamaica, 1809-1816. These slender volumes are an outstanding resource for understanding the mentality of a Jamaican sugar planter during the years following the cessation of the British slave trade. While there is little information on plantation management, per se, the letters provide considerable insight into the psychology and management of debt. Having inherited a substantial debt as receiver of his father's estate, Irving struggled to settle the family accounts, placing himself in continued conflict with relatives and creditors alike.

Irving's management of his daily business demonstrates how thoroughly his vision of the world was trans-Atlantic. His network of agents, suppliers, friends, and competitors extended not merely to the West Indies, but to America and Britain, as well, and for Irving, the nation clearly straddled the ocean. Intriguingly, the letters suggest the manner in which debt worked to cement Irving's network of relationships, however uneasily -- indebtedness was the mortar binding Irving's familial and commercial lives. To Irving, debt was an inevitable byproduct of successfully maneuvering the sugar trade, and the gambler's mentality implicit in this formulation comes across clearly in the letters to Irving's largest creditor, Joseph Birch, and to his attorney, Alexander Peterkin, and clerk, John Pigot. Of particular interest is an excellent series of letters to and about Jacob's nephew, James, imprisoned for debt at the tender age of 19, admonishing him for profligacy and a lack of concern for his budget and accusing him, at one point, of a conscious design to indebt himself. See especially the letter of 1810 September 13 and the letter to Alexander Peterkin written on 1811 August 6.

The commercial impact of Anglo-American foreign relations and the War of 1812 forms a second, though relatively minor line of interest in the collection.

Finally, the Irving letterbooks are a fine resource for understanding aspects of the mentality and economics of slaveholding in Jamaica. While there is nothing in the collection relating directly to the management of slaves, there is considerable discussion of trading in slaves, their value to the estates, and their status as currency in the Jamaican economy. Among the most intriguing letters is one in which Irving described the departure (in England) of his servant, Peter:

"My Man Peter has left us after long threatening to do so -- indeed I was obliged to [word crossed out: discharge] part with him he had become so idle & fond of company, his services were not worth having -- it is no more than what I always expected -- for as soon as these gentry get to this Country, & get connected with Buckra Woman the fools go mad, & at length when poverty & disease ensue, the press gangs get them, or they become beggars in the streets. I should as soon recommend a Man to bring his horse with him to England as his domestic servant" (1812 March 3 to John Pigot)

In an impassioned letter to Simon Clarke responding to reading an antislavery work (1812 February 26), Irving includes an edgy defence of the slave system against charges that it is antireligious: "Teach them [slaves] morality, and you teach them wisdom. Teach them religion, and you confound their understandings, & render them a prey toEvil-doers!"

The William Tell Claude manuscript contains all of Claude's editorial columns written between December, 1846 and June, 1849, probably for the Maryland Republican.

The William Tell Claude manuscript contains all of Claude's editorial columns written between December, 1846 and June, 1849, probably for the Maryland Republican. As a deeply committed and tireless publicist, Claude launched a series of front door and back door attacks on the Democratic opposition, criticizing the Democratic war in Mexico and smearing the names of Democratic candidates for office.

The origins of the manuscript are unclear, but it appears to have been compiled at a later date, possibly simply to be retained for convenient reference, possibly for separate publication. Only one work of Claude's appears to found its way into print as a separate work, however, his war-time Address to the people of Anne Arundel County (1861).