HILARY ABNER HERBERT PAPERS, #2481, 1864-1931
Correspondence, writings, and scrapbooks of Herbert, Alabama and Washington, DC, lawyer,
author, Democratic U.S. representative, and Secretary of the Navy. After 1903 much of the
correspondence focuses on race relations in the South. Included are letters which discuss
Herbert's efforts to bring Theodore Roosevelt and the South to an accord on southern race
relations, to promote intersectional understanding, and to explain the South's "Negro
problem" (1904-1909). Other letters address national government's domestic race policies
(1904); Reconstruction and southern racial issues (1904-1905); and the employment of blacks
by the Georgia Railroad (1909). The collection also contains Herbert's "Reminiscences", which
express his thoughts on slavery and abolitionists (1903, 1917), and popular reactions to his
book, The Abolition Crusade and its Consequences. Microfilm available.