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Collection

Divie and Joanna Bethune collection, 1796-1853

23 volumes and 60 items

The Divie and Joanna Bethune collection contains correspondence, religious diaries, and an autobiography pertaining to the New York couple.

The Divie and Joanna Bethune collection contains correspondence, religious diaries, and an autobiography pertaining to the New York couple.

The Correspondence series is made up of 59 incoming letters to Divie and Joanna Bethune, which primarily relate to Divie's business interests, and 1 letter by Joanna Bethune to George Duffield (February 9, 1837). Arthur Dalton of New Orleans, Louisiana, wrote the bulk of the early correspondence, discussing the local tobacco trade and ships' movements near the city. Divie Bethune & Co. received letters from Thomas Masters about financial affairs in Liverpool and London, England. Personal letters include letters between members of the Bethune family, such as a letter from Joanna Bethune to her daughter Isabella, which alludes to the possibility of Canadian annexation (January 6, 1850).

The 22-volume Diaries series comprises the bulk of the collection, and contains material written by both Divie and Joanna Bethune. Divie Bethune filled the first 17 volumes with devotional prayers, religious poetry, hymns, and occasional daily diary entries. Each of these volumes has an identical inscription. Joanna Bethune kept 6 diaries after her husband's death, in which she reflected upon her emotions and wrote about her charity work and religious life.

Joanna Bethune's Autobiography, written in 1814, concerns her early life, emphasizing her religious conversion and religious convictions.

Collection

Leckie family papers, 1794-1808

50 items

The Leckie family papers document the business activities and relationships of Alexander Leckie and his sons, who traded dry goods between England, the United States, and the Caribbean around 1800.

The Leckie family papers contain 44 letters, 3 ledgers, 2 inventories, and a receipt, spanning 1794-1808. The materials primarily document the business activities of the Leckies, who traded dry goods between the United States, England, Jamaica, and Haiti. The correspondence contains many details on the nature of an ambitious mercantile business and matters affecting it during this period. These include political disruptions that threatened trading, especially in Santo Domingo (August 31, 1797), insurance of cargoes, the suitability of certain kinds of goods for specific markets (August 5, 1797), and the types of materials bought and sold, such as cloth, groceries, soap, and candles. The inventories provide further specifics on types of items and prices.

The letters also reveal family relations and their repercussions on the business. In their correspondence, the Leckie brothers frequently quarreled with and chastised one another. They found particular fault with Alexander, who, according to his brothers, made a number of bad contracts (April 7, 1795), as well as an "unfortunate and premature attachment" to a young woman in Virginia (December 28, 1795). In a letter of February 4, 1802, George discussed Alexander's enormous debts ("Alexander could not be indebted at New providence in any less sum than 100.000 Dollars"). Despite this, all three remained in the business at least until 1808.

William Leckie's letters, in particular, show him to be a keen observer of society. In a letter of August 15, 1802, he described the rapid growth of cotton as a crop, the construction of Washington, D.C., and his views on the American social and political scene. His comments on the growing tensions over slavery in the south would prove prophetic: "I have thought that two circumstances are likely to operate at possibly no very distant day to the disadvantage of this happy Country, the first is the great laxity of morals & religion…The other is the increasing quantity of blacks…who are all natives & many of whom can read & write, these will perhaps prove the bane of all the Southern States & by their struggles for freedom involve nearly one half of the Union in Civil Wars."