The collection consists of six letters, mostly written by Landon Duncan. Two of the letters (1812, 1814) were written by Duncan to his uncle Alamander Duncan in Stokes County, North Carolina. Three of the letters (1837, n.d.) were written to his cousin Hiram Duncan of the same county. One letter (1836) was written by Jane H. Threves in Gallatin, Tennessee, to her cousin Hiram Duncan.

Many of the letters are addressed to the North Carolina Duncan family in Blakely, Stokes County, but a recent check (March 1998) of a North Carolina map shows that this town no longer exists.

Landon Duncan's religious convictions are evident in all of the letters he writes to his North Carolina relatives. In several of the letters he expounds at length about the nature of God's grace and his faith. Duncan also writes frequently about the current prices of basic goods such as pork and corn, and occasionally about his neighbors. In his letter of December 16, 1814, he gives his opinion of the draft laws passed in the Virginia legislature for War of 1812.