Beschreibung:

Title: Archive of letters, documents, receipts, stock certificates, and other items relating to business transactions of the Tyler-Goodwyn family, and to the bridge of which they were principal owners Author: Place: Various places Publisher: Date: Various dates Description: Includes approximately forty-five document, letters, insurance forms, contracts and other items relating to finance and business, including some involving sharecropping. 1867-1966. Plus twenty-five letters and documents relating to the Montgomery Toll Bridge Company. 1915-1934. Housed together within plastic sleeves in a three-ring binder. Interesting group of material relating to the business enterprises and transactions of descendants of President John Tyler through his eldest son Robert Tyler who married Priscilla Cooper, and whose daughter Priscilla C. Tyler married Albert T. Goodwyn. The Tylers and the Goodwyns were old Southern families, from South Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama, long involved in the political, economic and social life of the South, and were owners of slaves and plantations Provenance: Descended in the family. Among the items: Promissory note promising to pay John Whiting $2,195.58, signed by H.N. Goodwyn & A.G. Goodwyn, with vignette of African-Americans picking cotton – attached to printed form accomplished in ink, agreeing, in the case of failure to pay Whiting said amount, to convey to Whiting “all the crop of cotton, corn, oats, potatoes, fodder, etc. to be raised by us on the plantation of the undersigned A.G. Goodwyn…” 1869. Typed letter from Robert Tyler Goodwyn, to U.S. Senator from Alabama John H. Bankhead, on letterhead of the law offices of Goodwyn & Goodwyn, bemoaning how “’Relief’ has brought on a drought in the farm labor field.” “…Operating two farms occupied by thirty odd families I am acutely aware the government work has taken the farm day worker away from farm work. He is paid more for half time work than the farmer can possibly pay him for full, and he can hardly be blamed for scorning the plow and the hoe. Both my farms are in sections where ‘Cuffie’ largely exceeds ‘Bukra’ in number. The regular loafing class is rolling around day and night in rattling jalopies exuding prosperity which aroused envy and yearning for the fleshpots among the ordinary hard working croppers and small farmers. The spirit of unrest is growing even among the best tenants and small owners. We are becoming concerned about the ultimate results…” June 30, 1939. Lot Amendments Condition: Overall in very good condition, with expected wear. Item number: 308836