A letter from John Ball in Newport, Rhode Island to his son John Ball Jr. at Harvard College in Massachusetts discussing seeing John, Miss Ann Simons suffering an injury from a fall, Mr. and Mrs. Simons visiting their nephew James who is suffering from fits, and Uncle Ball's carriage horses being stolen from his pasture.
A letter from John Ball in Charleston, South Carolina to his son John Ball Jr. at Harvard College in Massachusetts discussing letter writing, a trip to Newport, and an assessment of a canal at Kensington Plantation.
A letter from John Ball in Charleston, South Carolina to his son John Ball Jr. at Harvard College in Massachusetts discussing John's schooling, a trip to Newport, and a drought in South Carolina.
A letter from John Ball in Newport, Rhode Island to his son John Ball Jr. at Harvard College in Massachusetts discussing the families arrival to Newport.
A letter from John Ball in Newport, Rhode Island to his son John Ball Jr. at Harvard College in Massachusetts discussing seeing John and the family's health.
A letter from John Ball in Charleston, South Carolina to his son John Ball Jr. at Harvard College in Massachusetts discussing John's absence from school due to sickness, a gathering of people at the "May day frolic," a lawsuit between B.P. Williams and Uncle Coming's estate and Mrs. Edward's daughter Kitty dying. The letter goes on to discuss Aunt Waring's enslaved man Allick murdering Polly Smith's carpenter Tom resulting in the execution of Allick. Makes notation that Allick also confessed to trying to poison Aunt Waring five times and "is one of the strongest instances that has come under my knowledge of the impropriety of too much indulgence to slaves." The letter ends discussing how Aunt Waring had hanged one of her enslaved persons years ago for robbing a wagon.
A diagram of the "Plain Scale." The horizontal axis is labeled "inclinations of meridians" and vertical axis is labeled hours. Various geometric shapes and lines such as chord, rhombus, tangents, secants, semi tangents, longitudes, and latitudes are drawn within the "plain."
A letter from John Ball in Newport, Rhode Island to his son John Ball Jr. at Harvard College in Massachusetts discussing education, morals and principles, the treatment of enslaved persons and the poor health of Jane Ball.
