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ABOLITION & EMANCIPATION

Part 6: Papers of William Wilberforce, William Smith, Iveson Brookes, Francis Corbin and related records from the Rare Books, Manuscript and Special Collections Library, Duke University

Detailed Listing

REEL 89

William Wilberforce Collection

Duke University has a substantial collection of Wilberforce’s correspondence (584 items) which ranks third in importance after the collections held at the Bodleian Library (published by Adam Matthew Publications as Wilberforce: Slavery Religion and Politics Series One) and at Wilberforce House, Hull  (published by Adam Matthew Publications as Wilberforce: Slavery Religion and Politics Series Two.)

The collection comprises:

37 letters from William Wilberforce (1759-1833) - philanthropist, member of the House of Commons after 1780, and leader of the movement in England for the abolition of the slave trade - to Thomas Harrison, a close friend and a member of the Duke of Gloucester’s West India Committee.  The content of the letters relates almost entirely to business matters and events involved in Wilberforce’s campaign against the slave trade; a campaign in which Harrison seems to have served as one of Wilberforce’s valuable assistants.

95 items added 15 May 1956, mainly letters from Wilberforce to John Scandrett Harford.  There is much concerning charities and Hannah More, a friend of both men.  The slave trade is mentioned occasionally.

27 items added 15 October 1957, including letters to William Pitt and Sam Smith.

1 further letter added 10 October 1958 from Wilberforce to the Press.

5 further letters added 29 July 1961, being letters to Wilberforce.

10 items added 23 August 1961, including letters to Canning, Harrison and others.

403 items added 11 August 1966, being letters to William Wilberforce from Hannah More, William Pitt, Spencer Perceval, Thomas Clarkson, Lord Brougham and others.

2 items added in 1967, 2 items added in 1970, and 1 item added in 1981.

They also have two of Wilberforce’s Cash Books for the period 1829-1833.

William Wilberforce: Letters, 1782-1805

Information about Wilberforce Manuscripts in Great Britain (Box 1, Folder 1)

[Please note that letters for the 1970s at the back of this file have been excluded].

Letters, 1782-1789 (Box 1, Folder 2)

Letters, 1790-1795 (Box 1, Folder 3)

Letters, 1796-1799 (Box 1, Folder 4)

Letters, 1800-1803 (Box 1, Folder 5)

Letters, 1804-1805 (Box 2, Folder 1)

REEL 90

William Wilberforce: Letters, 1806-1818

Letters, 1806-1807 (Box 2, Folder 2)

Letters, 1808-1810 (Box 2, Folder 3)

Letters, 1811-1813 (Box 2, Folder 4)

Letters, 1814-1815 (Box 3, Folder 1)

Letters, 1816-1818 (Box 3, Folder 2)

REEL 91

William Wilberforce: Letters, 1819-1837 and nd

Letters, 1819-1820 (Box 3, Folder 3)

Letters, 1821-1822 (Box 3, Folder 4)

Letters, 1823-1826 (Box 4, Folder 1)

Letters, 1827-1830 (Box 4, Folder 2)

Letters, 1831-1837 (Box 4, Folder 3)

Letters,   undated   (Box 4, Folder 4)

Account Books, 1829-1833

Account books, 1829-1833 (Box 4, 2 volumes)

REEL 92

William Smith Collection

From the introduction to the collection:

William Smith, MP (1756-1835), was an important figure in English politics for about 50 years.  He was interested in many reform measures.  This collection of 240 items is concerned primarily with his activities relative to the abolition of West Indian slavery, although there are a few items outside of this area.

Among the 100 letters in this collection there are many of considerable interest and importance.  Outstanding are the 24 letters of William Wilberforce (1759-1833); these discuss such topics as: religion, sickness in the family, his sickness which forced him to leave the House of Commons, his family and his desire for more private life with them, his relatives, political disappointments, trips and engagements, publishers, criminals in Great Britain and their punishment, resolutions and plans for the abolition of slavery, the Anti-Slavery Society, the Jamaica law, Spanish slave trade, Spanish abolition , William Pitt, Lord Grenville and his estate “Dropmore”, Dr Channing, Robert Hall, and Thomas Buxton.  There is a 10-page manuscript which gives excerpts and summaries of the Wilberforce letters included with the collection.  Three of the letters are fragmentary.

A number of the letters from Smith’s many correspondents stand out.  There are a number of letters around 1790 from various societies and committees discussing the abolition of slavery and approving Smith’s actions; some of them mention Wilberforce, also.  A letter from J. Yule in Edinburgh of August 13, 1792, tells of the poor Scottish peasants who are being driven from their lands to make room for sheep, which are more profitable.  Three letters from James Muir between 1793 and 1797 discuss the case of his son who has been banished for fourteen years for joining the Society for Parliamentary Reform. A letter from John Longley on January 31, 1796, tells of a book which he has just published on parliamentary reform and discusses various aspects of the English government from the viewpoint of a reformer.  Thomas Coke on March 16, 1809, writes of the different slavery laws in Jamaica.  A lengthy letter from Andrew Wedderburn, a large Jamaica plantation owner, on November 12, 1813, discusses the condition of the negroes after a storm, their food supplies, sickness and death, his attitude toward their care, the various uses of the land, the crops raised, and shipments to England. A number of letters from Bermuda, Nevis, Barbados, St Vincent, and Berbice contain similar discussions.  An unusually good letter comes from a planter in St Vincent, April 4, 1816.  Some of these planters’ letters give in rather emphatic terms the case of the planters against the abolition of slavery.  There is a copy of a sermon preached at Port Royal, Jamaica, June 7, 1822, on the anniversary of the great earthquake (1692) which contains a very frank and open criticism of the moral life of Port Royal.

One of the most interesting items in the collections a letter from John Horseman, July 15, 1817, which includes the text of Robert Southey’s poem, entitled “To the Exiled Patriots.”  The only known publication of the poem is in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Essays on his Own Times, (1850) I, pp19-20.  Horseman’s edition of the poem contains sixteen stanzas as compared to Coleridge’s ten.  In addition eight of the lines are different in the two editions.

Several letters from Thomas Clarkson in 1825-1827 discuss the methods to be use in the drive for complete abolition of slavery.  A letter from T. Gisborne in 1829 accuses Smith of being a papist.  A lengthy petition in 1829 signed by 95 “principal native inhabitants” of Bombay, India, protests to the House of Commons against certain grievances and asks redress.  A letter of Gilbert Salton in Bermuda in 1832 comments with keen insight on the recent Reform Act, on Irish independence, and  on the types of Christian missionaries in the West Indies; later letters from him give considerable details regarding the purchase of a life insurance policy in England.  Different letters in 1833 tell and of the methods and problems involved in the abolition of slavery. A letter from James Stephen announces Wilberforce’s death, July 29, 1833; also a letter from Wilberforce’s son, Robert, tells of the death.  There is a copy of a petition to Revd. H W Wilberforce signed by 127 members of both houses of Parliament requesting that William Wilberforce be buried in Westminster Abbey and that they be granted permission to attend the funeral. Several letters between the Clarksons and William Smith shortly after Wilberforce’s death concern Robert Wilberforce’s proposed life of his father and his ideas of attacking some of Thomas Clarkson’s claims for himself in the abolition movement.

The correspondents in this collection include M. Babington, J. Barham, Richard Bickell, Henry Bight, Richard Brodbelt, Priscilla Buxton, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Catherine Clarkson, Thomas Coke, Benjamin Cooper, John Frederick Garling, T. Gisborne, Andrew Grant, Robert Grosvenor, George Hibbert, John Horseman, Robert Harry Inglis, John Longley, Men Leith, Zachary Macaulay, James Muir, J. Plymley, D. Power, William Rathbone, Gilbert Salton, Phillip Sansom, John Scott, B. Shank, Granville Sharp, E. Sharpe, James Stephen, W. Villers, Andrew Wedderborn, James Weeker, Barbara Ann Wilberforce, Robert I. Wilberforce, William Wilberforce, John Wright and J. Yule.

In addition to the letters mentioned above, there is extensive evidence in the miscellaneous papers and the printed material on slavery.  It includes: ships in the slave trade, death on slave ships, food carried on slave ships, methods of obtaining slaves in Africa, conditions of negroes in Africa, British exports to Africa, eyewitness accounts and lists of witnesses, general information in the West Indies, estates and plantations, diseases and epidemics, population, treatment of slaves, breeding of slaves versus importation, description of a riot in Barbados in 1823 and the destruction of a Methodist chapel, printed petitions from the West Indies showing the increasingly difficult financial position of the planters due to high taxes, shipping costs, and low prices, lists of West Indian Laws concerning slavery and copies of some, a planter’s plan for the emancipation of slaves over a period of 34 years, conditions of slaves in French colonies, papers comparing the raising of sugar cane in the West Indies and in the East Indies and India, letters regarding the abolition of slavery in Ceylon, speeches in Parliament or manuscripts of books, Parliamentary resolutions, printed statements for and against slavery, history of the movement for abolition, newspaper excerpts, and magazine articles.

The Smith collection is exceedingly valuable both for its mass of excellent material on slavery and for its wealth of material on British politics of this period.

Five further items added 12 January 1961:  This addition consists of two leaflets from the Greek Committee in London and of three letters which are addressed to William Smith - two from Prince Alexander Mavrocordato, an official in the revolutionary Greek government, and one from John Orlando, a Greek Deputy.  On June 24, 1823, Mavrocordato asks Smith’s support for a mission which the Greeks are sending to England. The Greek emissaries hope to obtain a loan, as well as publicity, for their cause.  Mavrocordato also expresses (July 4, 1823) to Smith the appreciation of the Greek government for his efforts in its behalf. Orlando thanks (July 15, 1826) Smith for his help, and he refers to an unspecified decision which is expected from George Canning (?).  There are two leaflets from the Greek committee of which Smith was a member. One leaflet (4pp.) contains an address in behalf of the Greek revolutionary cause (May 3, 1823), a list of the members of the Greek Committee, and a lost of seven resolutions which were adopted at a public meting on May 15, 1823.. The second leaflet (2pp.) is a request for subscriptions, and it has along list of subscribers and of the amounts which they donated.

82 further items added, 22 August 1966:   Most of the letters are addressed to Smith. Among the correspondents who are each represented by a series of letters are: Henry Richard Vassall Fox, Third Baron Holland; Charles Grey, Second Earl Grey; Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, Third Marquis of Lansdowne; William Roscoe; and Christopher Wyvill.

One further item added, 3 May 1967: Letter from John Thelwall, Nov 6, 1803.

There is a collection of papers of William Smith at the University of Kansas at Lawrence. The collection is called the Dissenters Collection.

William Smith: Letters, 1787-1819

Description and Index (Box 1, 14 folios)

Letters, 1787-1799 (Box 1, Folder 1)

Letters, 1800-1806 (Box 1, Folder 2)

Letters, 1807-1819 (Box 1, Folder 3)

William Smith: Letters, 1820-1860

Letters, 1820-1829 (Box 2, Folder 1)

Letters, 1830-1833 (Box 2, Folder 2)

Letters, 1834-1860 and nd (Box 2, Folder 3)

Miscellaneous Papers, 1785-1833 and nd

(Box 2, Folders 4 and 5)

REEL 93

William Smith: Miscellaneous Papers on Slavery & The Slave Trade, c1788-1834 and nd

Miscellaneous Printed Material, 1788-1822 (Box 3, Folder1)

Miscellaneous Printed Material, 1823-1834 (Box 3, Folder 2)

Miscellaneous Printed Material, undated (Box 3, Folder 3)

Slavery in the West Indies, undated (Box 3, Folder 4)

Slave trade between Africa and the West Indies, undated (Box 3, Folder 5)

General conditions of Negroes in Africa, undated (Box 3, Folder 6)

Speeches and resolutions relative to Slavery, undated (Box 3, Folder 7)

REEL 94

Campbell Family Papers

This large collection of family papers contains nearly 8,500 items dating from 1731 to 1969 which document the personal, political, and business lives of various Campbells in Virginia and Tennessee. Prominently featured are David Campbell (1779-1859) who was governor of Virginia from 1837-1840, his wife, Mary Hamilton Campbell, and their niece Virginia Jane Campbell Shelton. We feature two folders concerning slavery in America:

Writings on Slavery (Box 41, Folder 1)

Writings on Abolition Societies (Box 41, Folder 2)

Thomas Clarkson Papers, 1807-1846

Letters and newscuttings - 18 items (1 Folder)

Miscellaneous collection of letters to and from Clarkson and clippings about his death. For the most part these items are concerned with the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, in the French overseas possessions, and in the United States.

Samuel Wilberforce Papers, 1790-1872

35 items (1 folder)

Includes correspondence of Wilberforce and Lord John Russell, foreign secretary, concern the decision to withdraw Livingstone's expedition and future help to missions from the British navy.

Other correspondence includes a letter, 1857, from Henry Labouchere, colonial secretary, concerning the lack of good clergymen in the West Indies and arrangements for three new bishoprics in New Zealand; a letter, 1860, commenting on the weak condition of the church in Tasmania; a letter, 1864, from Walter Chambers, describing mission work in Sarawak; letters, 1832 and 1833, pertaining to Wilberforce's attempts to unite the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel with the church Missionary Society; a letter, 1790, probably from Thomas Clarkson, relating to activity in Parliament for the suppression of the slave trade; a memorandum, 1860, of Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, discussing his foreign policy toward England; and a letter, 1869, of Sir Samuel White Baker regarding his expedition on the White Nile to check the slave trade, with details of his plans to halt the slave trade, plans for a parental government in the Sudan, and lists of his forces.

Samuel Wilberforce (Addition), Papers 1847-1872

(1 folder)

Zachary Macaulay Letters, 1812-1820

Letter to Captain Close, 14 December 1812 (1 item)

Letter from Zachary Macaulay (1768-1838), British philanthropist and figure in the movement to abolish the slave trade, to Captain Close recommending Robert Grant, a barrister who was "new in the cause", for Close's advocate, and noting a meeting that Grant and his brother Charles would attend.  Also, a letter from the firm of Macaulay & Babington, written by Zachary Macaulay to Latham Rice & Co   found in Great Britain Papers  (Literary).

Joseph Sturge Letter, 28 July 1838

Letter from Sturge (1793-1859), British Quaker and philanthropist, to A West of the Negro Emancipation Committee concerning arrangements for a festival to commemorate the freeing of slaves in the British colonies, 28 July 1838 (1 item).

Benjamin Franklin Letter on Slavery, 25 October 1788

Letter on slavery, 25 October 1788 (1 item), to John Langdon, President of New Hampshire, protesting, on behalf of the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania, against importation of slaves on New Hampshire vessels.

George Bradley Letters, 1845-1868

(6 items)

Correspondence of George Y. Bradley, merchant, concerning the poverty and unsettled conditions during 1867-1868, and difficulties with black servants in 1868. Includes a letter dated January 10, 1868 relating to another white man’s attempt to entice Martha, a cook in Bradley’s service, into his own employment. In Bradley’s repudiation he addresses the issue of employing blacks vs. whites as well as Martha’s monthly contract which she was at liberty to break.

Francis Cope Yarnall Papers, 1853-1861

Background material (4 items)

Diary entitled “Letters on Slavery” (1 volume)

Volume entitled “Letters on Slavery” of Francis Cope Yarnall, a businessman with interests in railroads, coal operations, and slate quarries. The work discusses the institution of slavery in the South and is followed by a series of letters between Yarnall and “Professor M” in which Yarnall attacks slavery and “M” defends it.  Topics discussed include conditions and treatment of slaves, house servants, field hands, women gang leaders, and the role of female slaves as healers.

REEL 95

Jacob Rhett Motte Correspondence & Papers, 1743-1902

 Papers and records of a white physician and surgeon in the Confederate Army.  Included is the Exeter Plantation Book, 1846-1871, which lists slaves, provisions issued to them, occupation, ages, births, names of parents and prices.

Exeter Plantation Book, 1846-1871 (Folder 1)

Jacob Rhett Motte Correspondence & Papers, 1743-1902 (cont)

Correspondence and Papers, 1743-1836 (Folder 2)

Correspondence and Papers, 1837-1843 (Folder 3)

Correspondence and Papers, 1844-1848 (Folder 4)

Correspondence and Papers, 1849-1902 (Folder 5)

Correspondence and Papers, undated, (Folder 6)

[The 1850 diary “Every-body’s Almanac for 1850” is included here even though          it is blank in terms of actual entries.  Pages 1-32 provide good contextual material with a chronicle of events, 1848-1849, and a page of statistics on the Population, Products and Manufacturers of the US].

Account Books, 1838-1845 (1 Folder, 2 Volumes)

REEL 96

African American Miscellany

Artificial collection containing various items pertaining to African Americans.  Included are miscellaneous slave sale receipts, freedom papers and clippings of black women.  Of particular interest is a bill of sale in which a black woman sold two slave children.

Slavery Division, 1757-1857 (Box 1, Folder 1)

Slavery Division, 1858-1867 and nd, including material on the Agency at Savannah, Georgia, papers on other Agencies and Auctioneers, sale bonds and bills of sale (Box 1, Folder 2)

Miscellaneous material (Box 2, Folder 1)

REEL 97

African American Miscellany

Bank Book of Freedman’s Savings Trust Company, Savannah, Georgia (Box 2, 1 volume)

The Mary Hamling volume of 1812, Salem, Ohio (Box 2, 1 volume)

Selected list of books by and about the African American (Box 2, Folder 5)

[Please note folders 2 and 4 have been omitted as these comprise printed material and clippings for the period c1950-1970]

Two letters from 1859 and 1930 (Box 2, Folder 6)

Indenture, 22 January 1802 (Oversize Box 48)

Mortgage of Personal Property, 14 October 1843 (Oversize Box 48)

3 Bills of Sale, 1852-1865 (Oversize Box 48)

Methodist Episcopal Church, North Carolina Conference, Greensboro District 1841-1852

Haw River Circuit Church Book, (1 volume)

Membership records for various churches in the Haw River circuit. Included are “names of the colored members in full connection” to the various churches, many of whom are listed under their owners’ names.

Currier & Ives Collection c1860-1900

“Black Stereotypes” - a series of caricatures (Oversize 2, Box 46, 13 items)

The collection contains frameable prints that cover a range of “scenes of American life.”  A series from the late 1800s are depictions of black social life, intended to be humorous, that reflect gross stereotypes about black life.

African American Theater and Minstrel Show Advertisements

(Oversize OC III 1, 9, 9 items)

This collection consists of advertisements for minstrel shows, plays, and musicals.  The casts are made up of black actresses and actors with few exceptions.  The advertisements reveal the comic role of blacks in theatre and are primarily of interest for the images of actresses and actors.

Virginia: Campbell County Clerk Register, 1801-1850

(1 volume)

Photocopy of a register kept by the clerk of the Campbell County Court (1801-1850) listing the names of free African-Americans in the county and giving name, age, height, complexion, and where and by whom emancipated.

Rankin-Parker Collection

“Eliza of Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Frank M Gregg (Folder 1)

John Rankin’s Autobiography, c1880 (Folder 2)

John Parker Story (Folder 3)

The collection contains the autobiography of the Reverend John Rankin and the biography of John Parker, an ex-slave who Rankin worked with for the Underground Railroad. Rankin was active in the Garrison Anti-Slavery movement and was mobbed for his views more than twenty times. John Parker was born into slavery and brought his freedom in 1845. Included is the story of Eliza’s escape across the Ohio River, which was later supposedly used by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

George Gage Papers

Freedmen’s and Home Relief Association of Lambertville, NJ. Minutes for 1864 (Box 1)

Journal of Sara M Ely, 1866 (Box 1)

(These two volumes are bound together)

George Gage was Collector of Customs and Superintendent of Lights.  His wife, Sarah Marshall Ely Gage, had a keen interest in abolition. Sarah Gage’s journal contains the minutes of the Freedmen’s Home Relief Association of Lambertville, New Jersey for which Sarah was secretary in 1864.  The journal also describes her migration south to teach in a Freedmen’s Bureau school in Beaufort, South Carolina (1866-1867).

Africa Papers 1838-1852

Letters (various) (Folder 2)

Several items relate to church affairs, including letters of Samuel A. Crowther describing Christian missions in southern Nigeria and the havoc caused by slave traders, 1852.

Typescript entitled “South Africa” by Cyril Sofer (Folder 5)

[Please note, other folders have been omitted as they cover a different time period and were not relevant to this project].

REEL 98

Francis Porteus Corbin: Correspondence & Papers 1662-1839

Letters and papers of Francis P. Corbin and is family.  The content of the collection from 1828 on centres on Francis Corbin’s financial interests, including the maintenance of his Louisiana sugar plantation.  Business letters form Paris, where he relocated in 1830, include reports on crops and conditions of slaves.  Of particular interest are the slave lists, c1712, from Ripon hall Plantation in York County, Virginia.  The lists are extensive, document family ties between slaves and list clothing and supplies distributed to approximately 60 slaves.

Information about the material; partial listing; family tree (Box 1, Folder 1)

Genealogy and calendar (Box 1, Folder 2)

Correspondence and papers, 1662-1795 (Box 1, Folder 3)

Correspondence and papers, 1796-1804 (Box 1, Folder 4)

Correspondence and papers, 1805-1814 (Box 1, Folder 5)

Correspondence and papers, 1815-1819 (Box 1, Folder 6)

Correspondence and papers, 1820-1839 (Box 1, Folder 7)

REEL 99

Francis Porteus Corbin: Correspondence & Papers, 1840-1876

Correspondence and papers, 1840-1844 (Box 1, Folder 8)

Correspondence and papers, 1845-1849 (Box 1, Folder 9)

Correspondence and papers, 1850-1859 (Box 2, Folder 1)

Correspondence and papers, 1860-1876 (Box 2, Folder 2)

REEL 100

Francis Porteus Corbin: Correspondence & Papers, c1805-1876 & nd

Correspondence and papers, undated (Box 2, Folder 3)

Portfolio of Deeds and Indentures (1 portfolio in Picture Cabinet Drawer)

Henry McPherson Papers, 1801-1826, Maryland

Accounts (1 Folder, 3 items)

Day book of accounts (1 volume)

Daybook and financial papers record general store transactions with blacks. Plantation accounts include entries related to the hiring of slave and women for weaving, farm labour and granny (midwifery) services.

Samuel Chapman Papers, 1800-1822

Financial papers, 1815-1822 (1 folder)

Account book, 1800-1822 (1 volume)

Financial ledger of a lawyer and planter itemizes Chapman’s extensive personal and business transactions including those with a midwife and free blacks. Financial papers, 1815-1822 include an additional list of slaves.

Manchester Ward Weld Papers, c1847-1870

Background information (1 folder)

Printed material, 1872 (1 folder)

Record Book, 1847-c1870 (1 volume)

Volume contains a compendium of lawsuits and cases aired before agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau, 1865-1880. Disputes include wages and several involve the efforts of black men to recover their wives from white owners who refused to set them free. Also listed is the amount of rations given both to poor whites and ex-slaves.

William George Matton Papers, 1859-1887

Autobiographical sketch, 1887 (1 folder)

Memoirs, Chapters I-VII (1 folder)

Memoirs, Chapters VIII-XIII (1 folder)

Papers of William George Matton, minister and presiding elder of the Northern (integrated) Methodist Episcopal Church in North Carolina, containing his memoirs (1866-1833) concerning his decision to come to the South as a preacher.  He was immediately in conflict with the Southern (segregated) Methodist Episcopal Church as he taught and preached to black congregations. Throughout his memoirs he discusses relations with the Southern Methodists, relations between the white and black members of the church, and church sponsorship of schools for both white and black students, Bennett College at Greensboro (a black women’s college) and North Carolina Seminary at High Point.

REEL 101

Thomas B Nalle Papers

Papers, 1875-1905 (Box 2, Folder 6)

Papers, undated (Box 2, Folder 7)

Thomas B Nalle’s Farm Accounts and Notes, 1877-1881 (1 volume)

Personal, financial, and military papers of a Virginia farm family include a farm account book, 1877-1881, in which labour contracts with black women and men are entered.

Iveson L Brookes Papers, 1784-1888, South Carolina

Correspondence of a white Baptist preacher and landholder in South Carolina and Georgia and his family and descendants. Letters discuss slaves and race relations, largely giving insight into white perceptions. Topics include the management of cotton plantations; tariff and the nullification controversy; transportation conditions; banking; missionary work among slaves; student life in Washington, DC, and a student's view of ante-bellum politics; diseases, health, and remedies; Baptist doctrine and doctrinal disputes; religious revivals; the impact of the Civil War on civilian life; the work of aid societies; destruction of Rome, Georgia, by Union troops; and wartime economic problems; mining near Potosi, Missouri; race relations in marriage and religion; politics in South Carolina in 1877 Columbian College in Washington, DC; Brookes' family genealogy; and his sermon notes. Included in the collection are lists of slaves divided by family groups and a contract for the “Conditions for Hiring Negroes by the Georgia Railroad and Booking Co., 1855”.

Letters, 1817-1856 (Box 1, Folders 1-2)

REEL 102

Iveson L Brookes Papers

Letters, 1857-1888 and nd (Box 2, Folders 1-2)

Sermons and sermon notes, nd (Box 3, Folder 1)

REEL 103

Iveson L Brookes Papers c1784-1878

Notebooks, nd (11 small volumes in Box 3, Folder 2)

Bills and receipts, 1829-1878 (Box 3, Folder 3)

Legal papers, 1784-1867 and nd (Box 3, Folder 4)

Miscellaneous, nd (Box 3, Folder 5)

Samuel Fuqua Account Book, c1835-1866 (1 volume)

An executor’s records of settlements of estates, household expenses, and labour.  Includes a written agreement between a Virginia planter and his slaves regarding their continued service after emancipation.  Briefly noted are some workers, both men and women, who had “absented themselves” from the plantation without permission.

REEL 104

John Ramsey Papers, 1834-1885

Account books kept by white farmer and merchant in North Carolina, which contain extensive and detailed records of Ramsey’s dealings with his hired labourers, many of whom, if not all, were black.  Records of cotton picked are listed by name, and document gender similarities and differences in work patterns.

Papers, 1859-1884 and nd (1 folder)

Ramsey Account Book, 1834-1872 (1 volume)

Ramsey Account Book including Ledger for Agricultural Labourers, 1878-1880 (1 volume)

John Ramsey Ledger including Ledger of General Store (1844-1847) and Ledger for Medical of Junius Napoleon Ramsey (1867-1873), 1844-1872 (1 volume)

John Ramsey Account Book including Day Book of General Store (January 1-March 10, 1849), 1870-1882 (1 volume)

[Please note, ledger for 1908-1909 is omitted]

REEL 105

Thomas Garrett: 6 December 1866

“Address to the Coloured People of St Helena Island of South Carolina”

(1 item)

Abolitionist Speech c1850

On the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 (1 item)

Isaac Shoemaker: Diary, 1864

A Northerner who Operated a Cotton Plantation in Mississippi, Reflecting the Trials of a Plantation Manager after Slaves have been Freed.

(1 Volume)

Log Book: 1791-1792

For Thomas Leyland’s “Christopher” 4th Voyage

(1 volume)

Slave Transporter’s Notebook (1 volume)

John Richardson Kilby Papers c1840-1889

3 letters dated 1 February 1850 (Box 1), 2 March 1854 (Box 3) and 26 June 1856 (Box 4)

Business and personal papers of John Richardson Kilby (1819-1878) and Wilbur John Kilby (1850-1878), father and son lawyers of Suffolk Virginia.  There are numerous references in the correspondence to the work of the American Colonization Society, including attempts made to rouse interest in the Society among free blacks, and a letter from former slave Randall Kilby detailing the conditions and activities of J.R. Kilby’s former slaves in Liberia.  Letters also refer to the Negro Reformatory Association of Virginia, and a legal case concerning Harriet Whitehead, a white woman whose mind had become impaired during the Nat Turner Rebellion when all other members of her family were killed.

 

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