Mary Cumming's letters home to Lisburn from America, 1811-1815

Letters written home by Mary (Craig) Cumming (1790-1815), who married William Cumming of Armagh, North Ireland--who was a cotton merchant in Petersburg, Virginia, acting as agent for a Baltimore trading house founded by his kinsman Alexander Brown. Mary's letters describe the sea voyage from Ireland to New York, the journey southward to Petersburg, the lifestyle of the Irish immigrants there, the welcome of her husband's negro household (she refused to call them slaves), the whirl of social life, the death of her baby, and the fervor caused by the War of 1812 with Britain.