Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

This collection bears no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

James Brady Papers, Accession 38-597, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This collection (# 38-597 ) was made a gift to the Library by Mrs. Innes Randolph Harris of Scottsville, Virginia .

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This collection of 265 items contains correspondence and legal and business papers, 1810-1890, of James Brady , a general merchant and slave dealer in Scottsville, Virginia . In the correspondence to James Brady are accounts of family matters such as illness from whooping cough (March 7, 1855), and a description of a voyage to Mexico where the author participated in the Mexican War ([ ] 28, 1847). Peter Loving , a family friend, discusses the immigrant situation in Missouri caused by the California Gold Rush (April 23, 1849), and a second letter elaborates on the actual land speculation of the same era (January 17, 1849). The bulk of the correspondence concerns the slave trade, carried on by various Richmond, Virginia institutions such as Pulliam & Davis , and Pulliam & Brady , and detailed by market listings. Leather goods, bank transactions, and land deals are also described in letters to Brady. Correspondence of Benjamin W. Brady , as well as some miscellaneous correspondence, typically concerns family matters.

The legal and business papers of James Brady contain court orders, receipts, and records of his store's daily transactions. Of interest are receipts for slave sales, which give an overview of the development of the slave trade in the period precursory to the Civil War. The business papers of William Campbell concern most often the daily commerce of his store. Miscellaneous business papers include advertisements (1846, 1890, n.d.), receipts, promissory notes, and a letter asking for credit at a tollgate facility (May 11, 1840).

Miscellaneous material includes an unsigned copy of a "letter" written by a new bride to an unmarried female companion which details her wedding night and present state of marital happiness (April, 1837) and an incomplete manuscript of the ninth chapter from a lost work (n.d.).