This collection contains correspondence, financial records, receipts, legal agreements, and other personal papers created by or received by members of the Crutchfield family and extended family living in East Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. Materials in the collection date from 1815 to 1957, with the majority of materials created between 1840 and 1849, and primarily document the family’s business enterprises in brickmaking, construction, and milling, as well as their discussions of national politics. Notable persons in the collection include Thomas Crutchfield Sr. (1801-1850), his sons William Crutchfield (1824-1890) and Thomas Crutchfield Jr. (1830-1886), and son-in-law John H. Lumpkin (1812-1860). Thomas Crutchfield Sr. and his family enslaved Black people, and materials include references to enslaved people by name in correspondence, financial records recording the lease and purchase of enslaved people, and a list of names of enslaved people and their families.