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This collection includes three manuscript novellas written by Henry Ruffner, including a draft of his published work titled "Judith Bensaddi," six sermons written in Ruffner's hand, Washington College student James S. Richeson's handwritten transcript of one of Ruffner's lectures on "Political Economy"(1840), a typescript copy of Ruffner's 1847 pamphlet regarding slavery in Virginia, an 1867 letter relating to Ruffner's estate by his widow, Laura Ruffner, and Ruffner's bound manuscript for the "History of Washington College" (circa 1857). This volume includes notes by Ruffner's son.

The Hugh Adams Papers archive is comprised of approximately 75 documents concerning the emancipation of nineteen slaves of the Adams estate and their estate imposed emigration to Careysburg, Liberia. Adams was actively involved for many years with the American Colonization Society ( A.C.S.) which promoted and engaged in the emigration process of free or freed African-Americans to Liberia on the west African coast. Included in the archive is an original handwritten copy of the will of Hugh Adams. Within the will, Adams settles his estate and specifically outlines his plan for emancipating his slaves and for funding their imposed emigration. The archive also contains account documents for living expenses of nine of the nineteen freed slaves during the interim period between emancipation and their voyage to Liberia in May 1860.The surnames of the emancipated persons and families are Adams, Miles, Halliburton, Lewis, and Johnston or Johnson. Other noteworthy contents include an official Rockbridge County manumission document and two contracts detailing the purchase of enslaved husbands by their wives who were emancipated and funded by Adams' will. Other individuals whose names are found on documents within this archive include Rockbridge County lawyers Greenlee Davidson and David P. Curry, lawyers 'Gilkeson and McNutt', possibly of Augusta County, Virginia, Rockbridge County officials Samuel McDowell Reid, Charles Chapin, and David J. Whipple, estate executors A.M. Carson and Robert Hutcheson, and A.C.S. secretary Reverend William McLain. Click here to access the Hugh Adams Papers in WLU's Digital Archive.

This collection consists of a manuscript letter to Joseph Philbrick (Jan. 9, 1843) from the Massachusettes Anti-Slavery Society promoting William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper "The Liberator," an original copy of the July 8, 1842 edition of "The Liberator," a fragment of the Dec. 1, 1865 edition of "The Liberator", a receipt for payment for a subscription to The Liberator, and an albumen photograph of John C. Fremont and his wife taken in front of the "Fremont Tree." The "Freemont Tree" was a Redwood tree in Santa Cruz, California where Fremont purportedly camped with his party of explorers in 1846.