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The Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Slave Records is a register of black and mulatto children born in Dauphin County between 1780 and 1825. The volume contains approximately 170 bound slave records giving each child's name, date of birth, sex, race, as well as owner's name, occupation, and place of residency.

The Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Slave Records is a register of the names of black and mulatto children born in Dauphin County between 1780 and 1825. The volume contains approximately 170 bound slave records, with 7 loose copies, a memorial for John Ewing, and a printed notice in the book’s front cover.

The ledger contains a seven-page index at the front, followed by 49 pages of entries, with three to four entries per page. Glued inside the front cover is a printed copy of the March 29, 1788, law regarding the registration of the children of slaves -- An act to explain and amend an act, entitled, "An act for the gradual abolition of slavery." The ledger contains 6 officially embossed copies of entries copied in the volume, and an undated letter with a tribute to a lawyer named John Ewing, who died at the age of 40. The content of this letter is highly religious and laudatory.

The volume lists 105 female children and 92 male children. Only 17 of the 197 children have recorded surnames. Of the 97 different slave owners most of them (76%) registered only one or two children. Only 7% of owners registered more than four. Notable slave owners include John Andre Hanna, a Revolutionary War general and U.S. congressman; Cornelius Cox, a Revolutionary War colonel and elector from Pennsylvania in the 1792 presidential election [he voted for Washington]; and Mordecai McKinney, whose son defended numerous fugitive slaves in Pennsylvania in the 1850's. For a complete list of slave owners see the Additional Descriptive Data section below.

The register lists the names, birthdates, and owners of 197 children born to slaves in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in the 45-year period between 1780 and 1825. The registrar often recorded estimated ages of those born prior to April 1, 1789, but for those born after that date, he noted exact birthdates. In one case, the record shows the actual hour of birth. The racial designations are Negro, Mulatto, Negro or Mulatto, and colored child. In only one case is a parent named:

"Be it remembered that on the Seventeenth day of April A.D. 1819 William N. Irvine, Esq. Attorney at Law...maketh return on Oath that a female Mullatto child was born by his Negro Servant Ann, on the seventeenth day of November 1818 and that the said female child is called Harriet, is now living and has been supported by the said William and is of the age of 5 months and twenty-nine days."

The children born after the 1780 act for Pennsylvania's gradual abolition of slavery became free men and women in 1808. The last child registered (Eve, a Mulatto, born June 6, 1825) would have been able to obtain her freedom in June of 1853. Covering a 45-year period, this volume demonstrates that abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania was a gradual process.

This collection is made up of letters and financial documents related to William J. Robinson, a tanner in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and Martin Ryan, a farmer in Niantic, Illinois. Ryan composed the majority of the letters, writing to Robinson about farm work and finances during the 1860s. Other items pertain to the business and financial interests of Ryan and Robinson.

This collection is made up of around 125 letters and financial records addressed to William J. Robinson, a tanner in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Martin Ryan, a farmer in Niantic, Illinois, composed approximately two-thirds of the letters, writing to Robinson about farm work and finances during the 1860s. Aside from a few land-related documents sent to Ryan, most of the remaining items pertain to Robinson's other business and financial interests.

Martin Ryan wrote frequently to William J. Robinson between December 1860 and the spring of 1869. He reported on the timber industry, real property, his crops (most frequently corn), cattle prices and purchases, and farm-related finances. In a few letters, he referred to the inherent risks of shipping cattle to Pennsylvania during the war (June 16 and July 7, 1863), and he also discussed monetary policy related to gold and silver standards (July 15, 1861), his desire for his wife to work fewer hours and for his sons to go to school (August 20, 1864), and his difficulties with a manager who often drank (several items, 1866-1867). In 1867 and 1868, Ryan often mentioned a lawsuit, and a few items of business correspondence addressed to him appear interspersed between his outgoing letters from the late 1860s. Ryan's letter of May 27, 1861, encloses an itemized list of costs associated with his farm.

The remaining items are primarily business letters and receipts to William J. Robinson, most of which are dated after 1869 (approximately 40 items). The firm Whitneys & Kingman (also known as Kingman & Whitney) of Chicago, Illinois, inquired about Robinson's willingness to purchase hides and sent numerous invoices and receipts. A few of Robinson's draft replies are present. Robinson received at least 2 letters from his son Edwin in the mid-1870s, and some items from the 1880s are addressed to his son James.