WILLIAM PORCHER MILES PAPERS, #508, 1784-1906
Personal, political, and official correspondence of Miles, South Carolina educator, U.S.
Representative, secessionist, and planter. Topics of letters include the dismissal of a
teacher at Wilmington Academy, South Carolina, who advocated an immediate abolition of
slavery (1834); slavery in the South and Cuba (1857); the climate
toward slavery in California (1858); a claim that territory, not
slavery, was the main issue in the secession crisis (1858); the
illegal importation and subsequent return of 305 Africans from Charleston (1859); runaway
slaves (1859, 1861); the murder of William J. Keitt by his slaves
(1860); changing British opinions on the South and slavery (1860); a comparison of black slaves in Haiti and the West Indies and
Freedom settlements (1860); the case of Rachel Johnson, a free
black of Native American descent, who was involved with a number of Charleston men (1862); a statement that the "gift" of citizenship and wages did not
"change" blacks (1867); and the raising of money to pay for
freedmen's votes in the anti-lottery election (1892). The collection also includes a copy of
"Slavery and the Remedy" (1857). Microfilm available.