The collection is composed of materials related to Dickenson's research on Southwest Virginia African Americans from the Civil War until the present.

This collection consists of an order issued by Colonel Orlando Brown, superintendent of the 8th District of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen's Bureau), on September 14, 1865, written from Christiansburg, Virginia. Special Order No. 12 requested the assistant superintendent of the bureau to report on the condition of freedmen in their districts.

The Thomas S. Gibson Letter is from Gibson, a farmer in Lee County, Virginia, to James D. Thomas, Bryan, Texas, on March 24th, 1870. The letter contains information on the money owed and interest due to Thomas from Gibson, as well as the fact that Gibson is unable to pay.

The collection consists of twelve letters from Albert Hobart, Jr., a native of Massachusetts living in Atlanta, Georgia, during Reconstruction, addressed to "Freind [sic] Wallace," and largely focusing on Hobart's personal thoughts concerning on the weather, his friends' activities at home, and his own homesickness.

The Letters to Eliza Doty were written by her unnamed sister, probably Sarah Poindexter, to Eliza in New Providence, New Jersey, on April 28, 1868, from Richmond, Virginia, and April 1, 1869, from Culpeper, Virginia. The letters contain information on the declining economic conditions in Richmond, and the sister's negative feelings about reconstruction conditions in Virginia.

Letter from C. L. Porcher, a woman living in Charleston, South Carolina in 1876. Writing to her sister, Porcher refers to the recent riots in Charleston and to family matters.

This broadside supports Congressional Reconstruction, and opposes backsliding Republicans.

This collection contains photocopies of affidavits, claims and answers, stipulations, and a bill for legal fees relating to U.S. v $28,000-Effects of R. E. Lee et al. which dealt with the seizure of land from Confederate leaders.

The collection consists of a letter from Daniel Verser in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, to his brother, Colonel William Verser in Burkesville, Virginia. Dated August 1867, the letter includes Daniel Verser's opinions on Reconstruction-era difficulties in the state.