The Public and Private Affairs of Paschal Nelson Smith during the American Revolution

FAIN: FT-10730-70

Gary D. Olson
Augustana University (Sioux Falls, SD 57197-0001)

Study of the business and personal correspondence of Paschal Nelson Smith during the American Revolution, revealing the operations of merchant houses at the end of the colonial period and the effects of the war on business activities. ABSTRACT: Study of the business and personal correspondence of Paschal Nelson Smith. The nucleus of this study is a bound letter book of the New York and Boston merchant house of Sears and Smith covering the years 1776 to 1781. The study centers around Smith, who ran the merchant house during the period, but contains correspondence with Isaac Sears, his father-in-law, a leader of the Sons of Liberty of New York City and a military leader during the Revolution. The letters comment on the actions of leading men in the revolutionary movement and upon the general progress of the war. They reveal the operations of merchant houses at the end of the colonial period and the effect of the war on business activities. Smith's letters to his family and friends disclose the impact of war on the personal lives of the people of the time. Fellow to edit letter book and write an extensive introduction and postscripts placing the letters in their hisotircal setting and relating Smith's experiences to the impact of wartime conditions on human lives in every period of national conflict, including the present.