Robert J. Brown diary : manuscript

Autograph manuscript diary written by Robert J. Brown during travel from Boston to Florida Territory, 1834-1835. Entries describe travel by steamboat, stagecoach, and railroad, and record impressions of natural features, commerce, urban development, and social life in cities, towns, and regions including New York City; Newark, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Richmond, Virginia, and the Tidewater region; Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah and Augusta, Georgia; Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Florida Territory, and the St. Johns River region; and Mobile, Alabama

Entries dated 1834 December describe visits to federal government buildings in Washington, D.C, including observation of debates about federal bank legislation in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Entries recorded in Virginia and South Carolina, 1834 December-1835 January, include references to slavery and the slave trade in Richmond and Charleston

During 1835 January-February, Brown was a guest of Orlando Savage Rees at Spring Garden, Rees’s sugar plantation near De Leon Springs, Volusia County, Florida Territory. These entries include detailed description of sugar production and the working and living conditions of enslaved African Americans

Other entries relating to Florida Territory describe St. Augustine; camping, hunting, and fishing on the Saint Johns River, with references to alligator hunting and orange cultivation; and encounters with Native Americans. A few entries dated 1835 March-April, apparently incomplete, relate to travel in the Florida Panhandle with description of Pensacola, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama