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Most of the letters in this series are addressed to the Vernons in Newport, Rhode Island, from the masters of their slave ships and from slave dealers in the West Indies, Virginia, South Carolina and Massachusetts. Some frequent correspondents were the firm of Adams and Griffin in Richmond, Va., Charles Bolton of Barbados, Samuel Brown of Boston, John Thornton and Charles Yates of Fredericksburg, Va., Capt. Caleb Godfrey, Capt. John Duncan, Capt. Thomas Rogers, and Capt. William Taylor. The letters of these and other men to the Vernons report shipboard incidents, progress of sales in the South and plans for return of ships to Newport. The series also contains letters from the Vernons to their business partners or the masters of their ships and frequently include instructions for the sale of slaves or cargo.

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Arranged alphabetically by name of ship, then by format for those not attributed to a particular ship. This subseries contains crew lists, accounts of sales and purchases of slaves, invoices, bills of lading, records of wages to ship crews, ship expenses, accounts of sales of goods in Africa, cargo manifests and trade books of the Vernons' slave ships.

The voyages of the Othello are the most well-documented in the collection; papers relating to this ship include accounts, receipts, memoranda, copies of correspondence, trade books and account books. A 45-page trade book of  Othello, 1764-5 is housed in Box 7, an oversize box. In folder 11, "Depositions and Memoranda re: Vernon vs. Rogers," are papers dated 1766 regarding the Vernons' legal action against Thomas Rogers, captain of the  Othello, for disobeying their orders to sail directly to Georgia or South Carolina after leaving Barbados. Instead Rogers sailed to St. Christopher's where there was an insurrection, which resulted in the death of 11 slaves. The Vernons sought redress regarding the loss of revenue from unsold slaves.

The ship Royall Charlotte is represented by accounts, receipts, memoranda and a 16-page trade book. In addition to an account, there is one deposition, dated April 4, 1799, related to the ship  Orange, which refers to damage to the ship when it hit a reef off the coast of the Bahamas during a return voyage. There are accounts and an 86-page trade book of the ship Venus housed in this subseries. This subseries also includes accounts for the ships  Adventures, Ascension, Casada Gardin, Hare, Little Sally, Lydia, Marigold, Nancy, Pacific, and  TittBitt.

A 24-page trade book of an unidentified vessel and a 20-page fragment of an account book for an unidentified vessel were placed in this series because they were originally kept with the other volumes specifically attributed to the ships of the Vernons and the format and handwriting match the others.

Folder 20 houses fragments of letters and accounts, and a clipping of a three-page article entitled, Account of a late Publication intitled 'The Origin of the Negroe Slave Trade,' By Matthias Christian Sprengel.

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Arranged alphabetically by last name of sender. This subseries consists of letters to Gardner and Dean, mostly from the firm of Phillips and Gardner, their South Carolina counterpart, and from Samuel C. Taggart, Thomas White and Joseph Wood.

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Arranged chronologically. Accounts of the Sloop Louisa dated 1771, and 1805 to 1806, and accounts and receipts not attributable to particular ships dated from 1805 to 1807 make up this series.

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Arranged chronologically. Letters to Stokes in Richmond, Virginia, concern the sale of slaves, including ten from A. J. Rux, apparently serving as Stokes' agent in various locations in Alabama.

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Arranged chronologically. Receipts for sales of slaves in Richmond, Virginia.

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Arranged alphabetically by last name of the slave-holder. Certificates usually include information such as the slave-holders occupation, the mother's name, and the date of birth and sex of the child.

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Arranged chronologically. Assorted depositions relating to slave ownership and trade from New York, Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland. One item in French from Martinique regarding a vessel from Rhode Island captained by Samuel Johnson.

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Assorted petitions from South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Massachusetts.

The deposition from Massachusetts is actually two petitions, one on either side of the paper. The earlier is dated January 1709, from the court of general sessions in Boston, Mass., and the petitioner is Jack, a negro, servant to Samuel Bill. Jack testifies that he has a marriage agreement with Esther, a servant of Robert Gutteridge, however, Gutteridge refuses to give his consent to the marriage. The second petition is from the Council and house of representatives in General Court in Boston assembled March 1780. Mercy Turner of Pembrook seeks to divorce her husband Philip Turner of Scituate whose "conduct and behavior is utterly inconsistent with the marriage covenant."

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The earlier indenture is from New York and states that Walter Butler, Jr. of the Mohawks agrees to "keep and maintain... a N[egro] boy called Primus for three years." The later is a partially printed form dated 1797, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania declaring that Negro Joseph, a manumitted slave, indentures himself for 14 years to John Delaval.

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Three of the five items in this series are deeds of manumission signed by Robert Carter of Nomony Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia, dated January 2, 1792.

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Arranged chronologically. Assorted estate inventories and property appraisals that make provisions for slaves from Alabama, New York and other places not named.

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Arranged chronologically. This subseries contains assorted accounts relating to slave ownership and trade from Georgia, Maryland, Rhode Island, Havana and places not named.

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Arranged chronologically. Includes assorted receipts and exchanges for slaves from Pennsylvania, New York, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia.

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Arranged chronologically. Contains receipts for sale of slaves in Kingston, Jamaica, including two in Spanish.

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This subseries houses two printed forms, one completed with information for all the taxable property in St. Paul's Parish, [Charleston, S. C.] 1814, and one for the taxable property of John Cart, Jr. St. Michael's Parish, Charleston District [Charleston, S. C.], 1819.