From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from William Noonan to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames, informing Ames of the escape of prisoner William Wilson while under contract to Powers and Jones.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Petition from Citizens of Starkville, Mississippi to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames, asking for the pardon of multiple convicts involved in the building of the Memphis and Ohio Railroad.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Superintendent of the Mississippi State Penitentiary William Noonan to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames, informing Governor Ames of the escape of three prisoners from the area of Starkville, Mississippi.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from William Noonan to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames, informing Ames of the escape of Henry Hanks while under contract to M. H. Tuttle.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from William Noonan to Mississippi Lieutenant Governor A. K. Davis, reporting the conduct of convicts Peggy Sykes and Dan Dora, convicted of murder and rape, respectively.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from J. J. McDaniel in Louisville, Mississippi to Mississippi Lieutenant Governor A. K. Davis, recommending pardon for James Perkins, convicted of an unspecified crime.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Legal Document containing a contract between the Mississippi State Penitentiary and the Mobile and Ohio Rail Road to supply inmates for labor.

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 Alcorn Collection. 2 -sided letter between Z. A. Philips and Mississippi Governor James L. Alcorn. One side is from Alcorn, the other from Philips. Philips writes to Alcorn giving him the reason for the imprisonment of Ann Parker, an African-American woman, who was convicted of arson and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary in Jackson, MIssissippi. Alcorn writes back to Philips that after a conversation with Parker, he has decided to grant her a pardon due to her age and frail condition.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Clark Collection. Letter from M. G. Moore, the warden of the Alabama Penitentiary at Wetumpka, Alabama, to Alabama Governor Thomas H. Watts, reporting on the prisoners from Mississippi whom the Alabama Penitentiary is temporarily holding. Then-Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus ordered that these prisoners be transferred from the Mississippi State Penitentiary to Alabama in 1863 through an agreement with then-Alabama Governor John G. Shorter. M. G. Moore's letter consists of handwritten copies of correspondence between Pettus, Shorter, Moore, and the Alabama Penitentiary board of inspectors regarding the transfer of the Mississippi prisoners as well as questions about the legality of Shorter's right to accept the prisoners and whether they can require the prisoners to perform labor. Moore intersperses brief explanations about these circumstances and his own actions throughout the letter. Appended to the letter is a receipt for prisoner-related expenses.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Superintendent Z. A. Philips of the Mississippi State Penitentiary to O. H. Crandall, recommending a pardon for William Brennan.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Report from Z. A. Philips, Superintendent of the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Jackson, Mississippi, to O. H. Crandall in Jackson, Mississippi, on the escapes of William Bently, Robert Brothers, Frank Watson, Boling Le Parish, and Frank Brady on November 4 and 6.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Z. A. Philips, Superintendent of the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Jackson, Mississippi, to O. H. Crandall, enclosing a report of recent escapes from the Penitentiary.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Z. A. Philips, Superintendent of the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Jackson, Mississippi, to O. H. Crandall, asking him to consider pardoning Jefferson Fredericks, a prisoner convicted by the Circuit Court of Yazoo County, Mississippi, for grand larceny.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Z. A. Philips, Superintendent of the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Jackson, Mississippi, to O. H. Crandall, asking him to consider pardoning Lizzie Green, convicted by the Circuit Court of Adams County, Mississippi, for grand larceny.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Z. A. Philips, Superintendent of the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Jackson, Mississippi, to O. H. Crandall, informing him of the good conduct of James Bradley, a prisoner convicted of larceny in February 1868 by the Circuit Court of Desoto County, Mississippi.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Superintendent of the Mississippi State Penitentiary Z. A. Philips to O. H. Crandall, providing the names, physical descriptions, birthplaces, and sentences of escaped men from the Mississippi Asylum for the Blind.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Superintendent Z. A. Philips to O. H. Crandall, enclosing descriptive list for two escaped fugitives from the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Jackson, Mississippi.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Superintendent Z. A. Philips of the Mississippi State Penitentiary to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames, requesting review and signature on military convict accounts.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Superintendent Z. A. Philips of the Mississippi State Penitentiary to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames, informing Ames of the difficulties in incarcerating Susan Stokes, a female convict that is far into a pregnancy. Philips advises that he has no place to put Stokes "out of hearing of the male convicts" during labor.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Z. A. Philips, Superintendent of the Mississippi State Penitentiary, to O. H. Crandall, informing him that convict Orange Lee has escaped custody from a camp near Lake Bolivar, Mississippi.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Request for payment in full from J. J. Armistead at Newton, Mississippi, to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames, for a delinquent amount owed on lumber used in the construction of the Mississippi State Penitentiary.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Ames Collection. Letter from Military Superintendent Lieutenant John R. Hynes in Jackson, Mississippi, to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames, concerning financial statements of the Mississippi State Penitentiary.