Scope and Contents
The Anderson Family Papers cover the period from 1862 to 1893, with the bulk of the material dating from 1865. The collection consists of personal letters and professional correspondence, both to and from two members of the Anderson family: Andrew Wilmore and his son, Perry.
The bulk of the 1865 papers address an attempt by Andrew Anderson, acting through a solicitor, to claim restitution from the State of Maryland for Charles Nelson, a man Andrew Anderson enslaved, who joined the Union Army in 1863 following the Emancipation Proclamation. Since Maryland was a loyal state, the Union offered compensation of $100 to previous enslavers of the people they formerly enslaved joined the “Colored Troops,” as they were called at the time. Nelson had enlisted in the 7th Regiment, and was killed in action at Fort Gilmore, VA in September of 1864. The family still worked to gain monetarily for Nelson’s life even after he was both freed from his enslavement and had died.
There are numerous income tax receipts from the United States Internal Revenue, covering the years 1863-1870.
The collection also includes drafts of proposal letters from Perry to two different local girls; a letter to Perry from his cousin, jokingly accusing him of assassinating Lincoln; an indictment against Andrew W. for causing bodily harm to a George Davis, who was the proprietor of the Quantico Hotel; and a monetary list of crops sold and livestock and enslaved people purchased at an unknown location in 1862. The collection documents rural life in Maryland, covering both the pre-Civil War and the antebellum time periods.
