From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Alcorn Collection. Report from P. B. Starke, Thos. W. Stinger, and T. J. Mitchell, members of a committee appointed to assess the affairs of the Mississippi State Penitentiary, to Mississippi Governor James L. Alcorn, containing the results of the committee's investigation into the condition of the penitentiary - including plantations leased by the penitentiary where some convicted persons, mostly African Americans, are made to perform labor - and its inmates. There are several pages of information concerning some inmates needing medical attention, some inmates whom the committee believed were improperly convicted, and recommended pardons or commutations of sentences. Appended are additional "special reports" concerning particular cases and persons.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Lieutenant Colonel Burns at Jefferson, Texas, to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames, informing the Mississippi Governor that he has one Rogers (alias "William Johnson"), a freedman and alleged murderer, in military custody.