Alexander and Linton Stephens retained tens of thousands of the written items that came into their possession. They laid aside for posterity treasured personal letters exchanged with kinfolk, drafts of writings and legal filings, and everyday receipts and notes, including tallies of the men and women they kept in slavery and accounts of post-slavery debts and credits.

Surviving materials became increasingly voluminous late in Alexander’s life, which stretched from 1812 until 1883. After his death, Stephens’ preserved papers became the property of family members and were then absorbed, at various stages, in five main repositories. A sixth collections of his letters, sent to and retained by his long-time secretary, ended up at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. These six primary holdings provide the basis of most of the transcription work this project pursues. A few items (such as those now in New York’s Gilder-Lehrman collection and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) were scattered further still.

A huge cache of materials were consulted and partially transcribed by the Emory University historian James Z. Rabun, who in the spirit of scholarly generosity, assured that these would could be used by later historians. More about the research collection he assembled, and then opened for public use, can be found here. Our transcription project will be making regular use of Professor Rabun’s preserved research, though we shift the focus from the political concerns that was of greatest interest to him and seek out the domestic details of the Stephens’ intertwined households.

Live Links to Existing Collections

  • LIBRARY OF CONGRESS is the largest cache, and one of the earliest to be consulted by scholars (its 1937 acquisition is discussed here). The heart of the “Letters from Servants” folder are the 22 letters sent by Dora Stephens to Alexander Stephens; other letters composed by Black Georgians are also there, but even more are sprinkled through the chronological sections of the 27,000 items that comprise the general chronological collection. Records of enslavement also appear and Black Georgians are a regular topic of discussion of back-and-forth with intimates such as R.M. Johnston, Henry Cleveland, Andrew Dawson, and J. Hagood Armstrong.
  • MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE The core of the Linton-Alexander correspondence is located here; microfilm copies exist in multiple locations.
  • DUKE AHS Collection There is a particularly extensive collection of documents from the early 1840s. Scattered across later materials are a signficant number related to Pierce Lafayette and to John L. Stephens.
  • EMORY In addition to the Alexander Stephens papers, there are valuable materials in the holdings of John A. Stephens, Alexander’s nephew. John A’s father, named John L. Stephens, is a regular presence in the AHS collections of the 1830s through 1850s, and also in the cache of legal papers. Emory’s Rose Library also hold the Rabun research notes (discussed above).
  • HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Letters written by A.H. Stephens between 1858 to 1882 to William Hidell, his long-time secretary and friend.
  • UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA SPECIAL COLLECTIONS. Critical documents are strung across several locales, including “Family Papers,” Slavery in Georgia Collection, Confederate Manuscript Collection, Stephens-Reid Correspondence.

IMAGE CREDIT: 1873 record of Cotton Produced by Fountain, Bob, George, and Travis Stephens; Alexander H. Stephens – plantation book: 1872. Box 20, Folder 3, Alexander H. Stephens family papers, ms3823, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries.