Charles Collins Letter to Thomas Rotch Regarding Cotton

Charles Collins of New York, probably a Quaker merchant, wrote this letter to Thomas Rotch (1767-1823) requesting information about the availability of cotton in Ohio, since members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, in the manufacturing industry would prefer to purchase cotton from non-slave states. He also mentions that while he is obliged to buy his supplies of coffee, sugar, molasses, and rice from Haiti and South America, he would prefer to obtain these in the United States. The letter is one page and measures 8.5" x 9.5" (21.6 x 24.13 cm). Thomas Rotch, a Quaker and early settler of Kendal, Ohio (now Massillon), was active in the abolition movement and conducted slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. He also served as a correspondent for the Committee on Indian Concerns. The Rotch-Wales Collection comprises several thousand items, including Quaker and abolitionist materials, household remedies and recipes, weather reports and machinery plans, and personal letters of Thomas and Charity Rotch and their family. It contains personal and business correspondence, diaries, documents, accounts, ledgers, and daybooks. A large portion of the collection consists of the personal and business correspondence, documents, and business papers of Arvine Wales I (1785-1854), who accompanied Rotch from Hartford to Ohio in 1811, worked for him, and carried on Rotch's business interests after his death. The papers of his son, Arvine C. Wales (1827-1882), a lawyer and civic leader in Massillon, are also part of the collection