A collection of letters and documents pertaining to the American Revolution, or to personages who figured in it. Among the persons represented in the collection are John Adams, Edmund Burke, Aaron Burr, Lord Cornwallis, Benjamin Franklin, Nathanael Greene, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, John Paul Jones, Marquis de Lafayette, Henry Brockholst Livingston, Robert Morris, William Pitt, Benjamin Rush, Baron von Steuben, and George Washington. The largest group of manuscripts in the collection is the sixteen letters of Henry Laurens, the South Carolina planter, and his son, John Laurens, among which is a magnificent "manumission letter" written by Henry Laurens to his son on 14 August 1776, barely a month after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. For the text of this letter see: A LETTER FROM HENRY LAURENS TO HIS SON JOHN LAURENS, AUGUST 14, 1776.