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This collection is comprised of 23 volumes containing manuscript copies of letters, documents, and more relating to New Spain, primarily in the 17th and 18th century. The original sources (dating 1583-1778) were selected, arranged, and copied between 1772 and 1778 under 46th Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa. The correspondence of the viceroy deals primarily with the administration of New Spain, government revenue, encouragement of agriculture and industry, development and fortification of frontier provinces, church matters, and diplomatic affairs. These volumes also relate to many aspects of social and everyday life in the 17th and 18th centuries, with content on hospitals, prisons, factories, educational institutions, and indigenous peoples of Mexico, California, Florida, and Cuba. Several volumes have ornate and illustrated title pages; the majority bear a printed bookplate of Mateo Seoane.

Please see the box and folder listing for more information about each volume in the collection.

The Haiti collection contains approximately 132 items related to the social, military, and economic history of Haiti from the mid-18th century through the 19th century. The collection includes correspondence, documents, and a scrapbook. The scrapbook, compiled by Victor Advielle, chronicles the history of the island from 1803, during the last stages of its revolution, through the 1890s.

The Haiti collection contains approximately 130 items related to the social, military, and economic history of Haiti from the mid-18th century through the 19th century. The collection includes correspondence, documents, visual material, and a scrapbook. The scrapbook, compiled by Victor Advielle, chronicles the history of the island from 1803, during the last stages of its revolution, through the 1890s.

• Therese Douault ALS to Martin Douault et Duberne, 1771 May 30; Légoâne, [Saint Domingue]. 2 pages. In French. Replying to the letter he wrote in April. Defends herself against claims she has mistreated his enslaved workers. Notes that Augustin, Eole, Mousingas, and Mercure were bedridden and one other individual died. N.B. Therese Douault was a formerly enslaved woman who married plantation and slave-owner Pierre Douault and was left in charge of the property in his absence.
• Bonneau et Avril DS, Journal des travaux..., September 1780. La Grande Plaine, [St. Domingue]. Beginning with a list of enslaved persons by profession/type of labor or other details (six women, for example, are indicated as free per the will of M. Baugé). The journal follows, indicating plantation events and the distribution of enslaved workers at different labor or at the hospital. With content related to mill work, sugar production, placing persons in irons, and more.
• Lory, Plombard & Co. ALS to Mr. Guillaumier; November 6, 1783. Cap. News of his brother, finances, and matters relating to enslaved persons (including their health).
• [Jean-Baptiste] Arnaudeau ALS to Madame Veuve Fleuriau, January 26, 1788; Bellevue, [Saint Domingue]. To his aunt, offering condolences on the death of her husband. Recommends buying the Fortin land as it is good for cultivating sugar cane. Purchase of enslaved persons for a good price (10 men and 2 women). Production of sugar and land on the Fleuriau plantation.
• Legal document from 1790 relating to the complicated distribution of Pierre Douault's estate, including the coffee plantation he owned in Saint Domingue.
• Delaire, Painparay & La Maiguere ALS to M. Peyrac, 1791 December 24; Nantes, [France]. 2 pages. Has received news from Port-au-Prince about the ratification of the treaty between "les Blancs & les Gens de couleur." Comments on how the gens de couleur have dictated the law, which is harsh against whites, but upholding it supports peace and protects property holders.
• [Pierre-César-Charles, marquis de] Sercey Partially Printed DS to "l'enseigne St. Prix," 1793 September 1; [New York, New York], 1 page. In French. Written near the New York harbor aboard theÉole . Orders from Commander of the Leeward Islands, "Le Commandant de la Station des Iles de L'Amérique Sous Le Vent," to embark on the frigate Surveillante to continue the ship's service. On illustrated letterhead with a decorative header; the portion featuring three fleurs-de-lis is inked out. N.B. Sercey commanded a fleet of ships carrying colonists fleeing from St. Domingue during the Haitian Revolution to New York and then on to France.
• British officer L. Dichter letter, describing Haiti as the "Devil's own Country"; July 4, 1796.
• An autographed letter by Toussaint L'Ouverture, written on his personal stationery; [1796].
• Citoyen Dodge Gorham and Dodge Gorham et Compagnie partially printed certificates (2) and manuscript document (1) pertinent to the shipment of goods, including beef, on the ship Zéphir (Zephyr) September 12, 1797. Le Cap.
• A deposition providing a firsthand account of revolutionary activity in 1793; October 25, 1799.
• Lovise Munroe manuscript protest, 14 Fructidor [September 1, 1800]; Môle Saint-Nicolas, Saint Domingue. 6 pages. Official notary copy of the protest of Lovise Munroe, captain of the Schooner Two Brothers of Boston, which sailed out of Philadelphia bound with goods consigned to merchant John Lewis at Cap Français. Was forced into the port at Môle Saint-Nicolas, "having been Contraried by the Winds & Weather." General Hyacinthe Moïse ordered that Munroe would "be so good to land All the Articles Useful to the State, such as, Tar, Pitch, Gun-Powder, Muskets, Swords, Pistols, Lead, Bunting, Tin and Flints, these articles will be deposited in the Arsenal in the Manner Order'd and Citn. [Mansey] Colin charged with the sale of the Surplus of the Cargo, will take the Arrangements he shall think most suitable with General Moyse, for the reimbursement of these Articles and the best of his Interest." After the goods were sold, Lewis claimed that he did not receive any compensation for the long sojourn in Môle Saint-Nicolas, but instead needed money to pay for flour, cloth, and cordage for the vessel's use.
• Donatien Marie Joseph de Vimeure letter to Charles-Emmanuel Leclerc, [circa 1802]. [Church of Limounade]. Marched yesterday and made the enemy fall back to the woods of in advance of Limonade; the 200 men of the 79th defeated them, killed many, and bivouac in the woods of L'anse. Seriziac arrived at Roseau Dominique. On Rochambeau's printed "Armée de St.-Domingue" stationery, "Liberté. Égalité. Au Quartier-Général d . . . le . . . l' an dix de la République française. De ROCHAMBEAU. Général de Division,"
• Robert McTaggart letter to Philadelphia merchants [John Reed, Standish Forde, and Samuel Israel]; January 18, 1804. Cap Français. Respecting trade issues, stagnant markets, spoiled produce, government restrictions on coffee purchases. Reference to ships at harbor and difficulties with French privateers.
• Letter to Martin[-Pierre] Foache, April 6, 1804. Au Cap. Describes persecution of white residents preceding the massacre ordered by Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
• A ca. 1815 legal summary of a case regarding the difficulties of collecting bills in post-revolutionary Saint Domingue. References the inability of the French merchant Reveliere to establish a trading house in Saint Domingue around 1802, which forced him to sell his cargo with a military contractor, but payment was later suspended by a governmental decree. Notes the impact on third-party bearers of the bills.
• B[elfast] Burton [draft letters?] to [Richard Allen?], [1825]; Semana, Haiti. 2 pages. Two letters on opposite sides of a single sheet. Discussion of issues with Pierre Joseph Marie Granville (Jonathas Granville), governance, authority, "there is nothing equal to truth & honesty and industry..." Politics, meddling of Alexander, support but apprehensions regarding President Jean-Pierre Boyer, and the campaign to promote African American immigration to the Republic of Haiti.
• Eugène-Léopold-François Pesnel DS petition to Faustin Soulouque, [1856?]; Cherbourg, [France]. 14 pages. Petition by Pesnel, requesting Empereur Soulouque to grant compensation to Marie Jeanne Pesnel, his mother, for property and proceeds lost as a result of the Haitian Revolution. Marie's father Thomas de Launay owned dwellings north of Cap Français and in Borgne. He had lived in Saint Domingue for 45 years before his death in 1781. The properties, including a cafeterie, had an annual profit of around 300,000 francs. The capital was 6,000,000 francs, which would have increased considerably in the hands of merchant de Launay and his descendants. Pesnel's request include a lengthy affirmation of his Republican sentiments, love of freedom, and dislike of slavery. The last page of the petition includes a transcription of a baptismal record of Marie Jeanne de Launay.

Other items are two photographs, a copy of L'Écho de la Timbrologie that traces the history of Haiti (January 31, 1954), a Carte de l'Isle de Saint Domingue ([1759], housed in the Map Division), a 1788 postmark from "Cap Haitien," and a newletter about French colonial postmarks.

Victor Advielle compiled the scrapbook, entitled Notes sur Haiti, in Paris in 1895. In addition to newspaper clippings, speeches, correspondence, and government documents, the volume has a piece of music entitled "Les paroles sont de Mr. de la Soriniere danjou, Et la Musique de Mr. Boran de St. Domingue." The scrapbook pertains to Haiti's 19th-century history. The section entitled "Ma Correspondence avec Légitime" contains personal correspondence between Victor Advielle and François Denys Légitime, who later became president of Haiti (1888-1889). The material within the scrapbook is in French.

The Jean Rousselin Collection is made up of three letters, one letterbook and correspondence record, five documents, and one imprint largely pertinent to Rousselin's time as a commercial agent in St. Domingue, Cuba, and Louisiana around the final period of the Haitian Revolution, 1802-1805. Additional letters and documents date from 1791-1794, 1809-1810, and 1814.

The Jean Rousselin Collection is made up of three letters, one letterbook and correspondence record, five documents, and one imprint largely pertinent to Rousselin's time as a commercial agent in St. Domingue, Cuba, and Louisiana around the final period of the Haitian Revolution, 1802-1805. Additional materials date from 1791-1794, 1809-1810, and 1814.

The letterbook and correspondence record volume contains copies of 20 outgoing letters from Jean Rousselin to merchants and investors in Le Havre, Paris, Port au Prince, and New York between September 6, 1802, and September 22, 1805. The volume also contains a record of an additional 18 letters from Rousselin to the same recipients, but without copies of the letters themselves.

The letterbook revolves around Jean Rousselin's oversight of goods at St. Domingue that were owned by his employer Marliani and Co. of Paris (at Rue Neuve-du-Luxembourg). Sometime in 1803 Rousselin was forced to evacuate from the island, managing to get a quantity of cloth and other product aboard a ship to Cuba. In his new location in or near Santiago de Cuba, Rousselin corresponded with Marliani at Paris; M. Gosselin at Le Havre; American factors/merchants, especially George Meade at Port au Prince and merchants Ralph B. Forbes and his brother James G. Forbes at New York. Rousselin spent around two years trying to arrange the sale of goods remaining at St. Domingue via George Meade (who died there in 1804), follow Meade's payments to Forbes, and secure funds through Forbes to pay Marliani. At the same time, Rousselin invested some of Marliani's capital to become co-owner of a coffee plantation near Santiago de Cuba. The coffee plantation investment underwent challenges and floundered for inadequate resources.

One letter (not part of the letterbook) dated October 20, 1804, contains Rousselin's vivid and detailed description of the landscape, people, culture, trade, leisure, and everyday life in Cuba, as shared with Dubuc at Le Havre. Other items in the collection include a 1794 statement of Rousselin's military service, his 1802 passport, and additional business letters and documents, particularly after Rousselin's arrival in New Orleans.

The Jean Rousselin collection also includes the imprint: Loi relative aux sieurs Bosque, Greslier, Guy, Leborgne & autres ; & au sieur Edmont Saint-Léger, commandant de la garde nationale de Tabago. A Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale, 1791.

Please see the box and folder listing below for details about each item in the collection.

The Blandina Diedrich Collection is a selection of manuscript items compiled by her son Duane Norman Diedrich and dedicated to her memory. The content of these letters, sermons, documents, and other materials reflect the life and interests of Blandina Diedrich (1903-1996), most prominently subjects pertinent to Christianity, home, and the family.

The Blandina Diedrich Collection is a selection of manuscript items compiled by her son Duane Norman Diedrich and dedicated to her memory. The manuscripts reflect the life and interests of Blandina Diedrich, most prominently Christianity, home, and the family. Items include sermons from prominent ministers or preachers of different Protestant denominations, documents related to church operations and discipline, letters by prominent and everyday persons respecting their faith and beliefs, correspondence of missionaries, and reflections on religion's role in all manner of human endeavor.

The collection is comprised of over 260 letters, manuscript sermons and hymns, documents, and other items. For a comprehensive inventory and details about each item in the collection, please see the box and folder listing below.