Joseph Martin Papers, 1771-1809. Papers of Martin (1740-1808), an active participant in civil and military affairs affecting the development not only of Tennessee but also of Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, and his native Virginia. Born in Albemarle County where he was a schoolmate of Thomas Sumter, Martin became a trapper, hunter, and early settler in Powell's Valley (1769); militia captain in Dunmore's War and in the Cherokee expedition of 1776; agent for the Transylvania Company to spur settlement in Kentucky in 1775; Indian agent among the Cherokee on the Holston River and commissioner to negotiate treaties with the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek nations in the period from 1777-1789; member of the legislatures of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia; and brigadier general of North Carolina militia (appointed in 1787) and of Virginia militia (appointed in 1793).

Volume 1 XX contains original manuscripts, 1771-1786, pertaining mainly to Martin's military service and to his work as Indian agent and treaty commissioner. A few early pieces, beginning with a letter (1771) from Dr. Thomas Walker, allude to the settlement of Powell's Valley. Military records include Martin's commissions as captain of Pittsylvania County militia signed by Lord Dunmore (1774) and by the Virginia Committee of Safety (1775), a few accounts and receipts, rolls listing the members of his companies (1774, 1776-1777), and letters from Anthony Bledsoe, Arthur Campbell, William Christian, Robert Derry, John Donelson, John Dunkin, John Floyd (at Boonesborough), Philip Love, William Preston, Evan Shelby, Isaac Shelby, Turner Southall, and James Thompson.

Papers on Indian affairs include commissions and appointments signed by Patrick Henry (1777), Nathanael Greene (1781), and Benjamin Harrison (1783); a series of letters (1782-1784) with instructions to Martin and other treaty commissioners from Governor Harrison; manuscripts of talks by Christian, Martin, and John Sevier to Cherokee and Chickasaw leaders; an original treaty (November 5, 1783) signed by Donelson and Martin with the Chickasaw at French Lick [Nashville] on the Cumberland River; lists of gifts presented to the Indians; and letters from William Blount, Christian, Governor Alexander Martin of North Carolina, and Isaac Shelby. Also found in the correspondence are single letters by Martin to Virginia governors Thomas Jefferson (1780) and Patrick Henry (1786). The apprehension and chastisement of a runaway slave are discussed in a letter (1777) by John Wimbish.

Volume 2 XX contains original manuscripts and contemporary copies, 1785-1809, of which the majority pertain to Joseph Martin's involvement in troubled Indian relations and to the development of East Tennessee. Many letters have political allusions and overtones, and there are references to the State of Franklin; to Martin's military participation in the Chickamauga campaign which he led in 1788 and in the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794; to land settlement in Kentucky, Tennessee, and adjoining states; and to the unsettled boundaries between North Carolina and Tennessee and between Kentucky and Virginia. Numerous congressional resolutions, statements, and commissions concern negotiations in the 1780s with the Cherokee and other southern tribes. Included are a printed copy of the Treaty of Hopewell (1786) and two copies of a printed broadside bearing a congressional proclamation warning settlers of penalties for illegally inhabiting Cherokee hunting lands guaranteed in the Hopewell treaty. Military records include Martin's commissions as brigadier general signed by Governor Richard Caswell of North Carolina (1787) and Governor Henry Lee of Virginia (1793); a payroll for Thomas Vincent's company from Sullivan County, North Carolina in the Chickamauga campaign; and orders issued to the Virginia militia by Samuel Hopkins in 1794. Two letters (1800, 1805) by Joseph's son, William, cover a range of topics-family; land, business and law suits; Indians; and politics. Letters by Joseph Martin include one (1785) to William Russell written at the Cherokee town of Chota and others addressed to Patrick Henry (1789, 1795, and a summary of one in 1799).

Other writers of notable letters are S. Armistead, William Blount, W.A. Burwell, Edward Carrington, Thomas Evans, Thomas Hutchins, Peter Johnston, Samuel Johnston (governor of North Carolina), Henry Knox, James Lather, Robert Love, Stevens Thomson Mason (1760-1803), Return J. Meigs, James Monroe, Andrew Pickens, Edmund Randolph, Archibald Stuart, Creed Taylor, Edward Telfair, and James Wood.