Letters from Nolen and Griffith Dickinson on travels from Virginia to Missouri. Other letters of the Dickinson family are of John P. and Joseph Wright referring to the hard times and quoting the price of cotton and tobacco. In a letter of 1838, Wm. A. Dickinson suggested to Joseph Wright that they try growing Chinese mulberry trees for sale, saying that a great many people in eastern Virginia and to the north were making silk. A letter written by Hester and Lancaster of Marion, Alabama in 1854 stated that they were selling slaves very slowly since the trade in that state was very dull.