This collection contains Lydia Rawlins' manuscript diary, accompanied by two letters written to Lydia Rawlins. Lydia Rawlins was a schoolteacher and daughter of a preacher who lived in Manila, Indiana. When the diary begins she is teaching in Addison, Township in Shelby County, Indiana. Lydia was very religious and held anti-slavery views. Her diary covers the tension within her church regarding the issue of slavery and how the issue affected her faith.