Content and Format

The letters, newspaper articles, book excerpts, and WPA survey reports are transcribed as close to the original texts as possible. Instead of a full transcription a summary is provided for each court record. All related materials are added to enhance and complement the Carmichael letters.

For archival purposes all pages of the letters are scanned, including the blank backsides. Due to the size of the images, some pages may download slowly.

All the original Carmichael letters are physically maintained in the Albert & Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. The citation for these papers should be: Dr. James Carmichael Papers, 1816-1832 and n.d., Accession #11373, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, VA.

Transcription Guide

  • Green text = added by the original author
  • Words with lines through them = scratched out by the author
  • Orange text = editor had difficulty reading the text and made an educated guess at the transcription
  • [Square brackets around orange text] = missing words supplied by the editor
  • [unclear]” (orange brackets around the word “unclear”) = editor was unable to decipher that part of the text