Chiefly correspondence (1778, 1821-1867, 1884, 1907 and undated) of Lemuel Boykin and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Hopkins; Lemuel's letters from resorts in Virginia and North Carolina constitute the bulk of the correspondence after 1832 and apparently reflect efforts to treat a chronic health condition. Includes letters written from White Sulphur Springs (Greenbrier County, W.Va.), Hot Springs (Bath County, Va.), and Salt Sulphur Springs (Monroe County, W.Va.) as well as Wilson Springs and Asheville in North Carolina. Earlier items relate chiefly to members of the Boykin family who settled in Alabama around 1820, in particular Francis Boykin (1785-1839), who wrote his brother Samuel, asking that he collect certain notes due him in South Carolina, urging him to come to Alabama for a visit, and offering the opinion that "you would be satisfied that you are working for nothing on them poor worn out Lands." Writing during the summer of 1835, Lemuel described conditions at White Sulphur Springs [now known as the Greenbrier Hotel, located in West Virginia] where his health was improving, and he wrote on 22 July 1835 that he was hopeful that his wife would "forego the satisfaction and pleasure of my presence at Home, with our little Brats for a short time." The hotel, he complained, was crowded with as many as four hundred guests, "all dining under one roof, you can imagine how boisterous and unruly so large a company must be, all wanting to be helped at once." In addition to the Lemuel Boykin correspondence, the collection contains two letters, 16 Dec. 1838 and 8 Jan. 1839, from Mrs. [Fitzgerald] [Glover] Boykin, the widow of Samuel, to Burwell and Lemuel Boykin concerning the sale of slaves from her husband's estate. The earlier letter informs Burwell that she was sending the slaves from Charleston to Camden, S.C., for the sale "with the promise...that they will be bought in from me, and returned as soon as possible after the Sale is over." Mrs. Boykin had spoken with the slaves and, she wrote, "[I] have determined that nothing but death shall separate me from them, as they are not willing to live with anyone else." Mrs. Boykin sent these African Americans from Charleston in a wagon and explained in the subsequent letter that her "feelings" precluded her coming with them-"nothing but a perfect confidence, in an over ruling providence, could sustain me in this, as well as all other trials, that have occur[r]ed in the last four years."
