The records are arranged into five series:

Series 1 - Publications

Series 2 - Bills of Sale

Series 3 - Correspondence

Series 4 - Miscellaneous Documents

Series 5 - Speeches

The Anti-Slavery Collection, collected by Berea College librarians (through donation and purchase) consists primarily of publications, letters, bills of sale and reports; records date from 1769- 1865, although one retrospective account was recorded in 1916.  Most of the materials in the collection relate to slavery and support Berea College’s open opposition to the institution of slavery.

Of particular note in the collection is a letter and separate autograph of Levi Coffin, President of the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati, and letters from James Birney and Thomas Garrett. Also in the collection is an anti-slavery publication of 1856 written by William Goodell, a compatriot of Berea founder John G. Fee, as well as typescript accounts by Matilda Hamilton Fee.  The slave deeds in the collection remain a testament to the stark reality of slavery.