Duff Green was a journalist, politician, and industrial promoter. The collection chiefly consists of correspondence, business records, and writings of Duff Green and of his son, Benjamin Edwards Green (1822-1907), businessman and diplomat. The bulk of the papers relate to far-flung and diverse business enterprises, a lesser but substantial part to politics. Correspondence, contracts, deeds, legal proceedings, legislative memorials, account books, and corporation charters, prospectuses, and directors' proceedings reflect the Greens' activities and plans in finance, canals, railroads, coal and ore mining, manufacturing, insurance, postal contracts, and many other areas of business before and after the Civil War, touching Mexico and most of the United States, particularly Maryland, West Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee. Material relating to their activities in Confederate industry is less ample than that for the pre- and post-war periods. Duff Green's political papers cover the Jacksonian, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras. Besides business and political correspondence, B. E. Green's papers include items relating to his diplomatic missions in Mexico, 1844, and the West Indies, 1849, and a considerable quantity of writings about Mexico, finance (he was a leader of the Greenback Party), religion, industry, and labor, and the issues of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Additions to the collection include typed copies of letters, 1826-1889, made in the mid-20th century, probably by Fletcher M. Green; Fletcher Green correspondence; original legal documents; typed copies of documents, speeches, essays, and propositions; photographs and prints; research papers, articles, and notes written by Fletcher M. Green; printed essays; articles; speeches; prospectuses; proceedings; records; and newspaper clippings. Correspondence relates chiefly to business enterprises, especially newspaper, railroad, and industrial ventures; there are also personal and political letters. Fletcher Green correspondence relates mainly to his research relating to Duff Green and Benjamin E. Green and to his assistance in securing the original deposit of Duff Green Papers for the the Southern Historical Collection.
