Records of Enslaved People, PC.1629
Abstract
These Records of Enslaved People were created over time by the State Archives's staff and consists of original and photcopied documents relating to slavery in North Carolina, as late as 1862. The collection contains original items such as bills of sales, deeds of gift, account of hire of slaves, and also photcopied items (with some enclosures), including bills of sale, deed of emancipation, commitment, court papers, petitions, certification, claims, letters, depositions, and enslaved births. Includes a manuscript letter of 2 February 1843 written by a friend of John Brown, Augustus Wattles of Ohio (abolitionsist and educator), to William Smith, Michigan, alias for David, a fugitive enslaved person of Presley Nelms of Anson County, North Carolina. Additionally, there are three copies of published accounts, each recollections life as an enslaved person.
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Records of Enslaved People
- Call Number
- PC.1629
- Creator
- State Archives of North Carolina. Private Manuscripts Archivists
- Date
- 1748-1922
- Extent
- 0.900 cubic feet
- Language
- English
- Repository
- State Archives of North Carolina
Restrictions on Access & Use
Access Restrictions
Available for research
Use Restrictions
Copyright is retained by the authors of these materials, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law (Title 17 US Code). Individual researchers are responsible for using these materials in conformance with copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item] in PC.1629, Records of Enslaved People, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. U.S.A.
Collection Overview
Records of Enslaved People contains original and photocopied documents relating to
slavery in North Carolina. Original items include deeds of gift and bills of sale
for enslaved people, including small children, to John Crisp (1813), Rachel King (1814),
and Iverson M. Glass (1856) of Caswell Co.; to Theophilus Parker of Edgecombe Co.
(1829); to Elijah Clark of Craven County (1830); to Daniel C. White of Pasquotank
County (1854); and to Mary Mitchell Hardy of Bertie County (1854). Also permission
for enslaved people to marry, given by owner William Ezell, Sr. (1825). Photocopies
are chiefly from public records and include court records relating to murder trials
in Craven (1748), Dobbs (1772), Brunswick (1778), and Halifax (1785, 1786) counties
and to reimbursement of owners for executed slaves; and depositions by slaves and
letters concerning an insurrection conspiracy in Bertie and surrounding counties (1802).
Other photocopies include deed of manuission for slave John Stanly (Craven Co., 1795);
New Hanover County bill of sale to Amelia Green, former slave of Robert Schaw, for
her daughter Princess (1796); and letters and petitions concerning manuission of individual
slaves in estates of William Thompson (Bertie Co., 1816), Isaac Knight (Rowan Co.,
1836), and John Roberts (Cleveland Co., 1850). Miscellaneous photocopies include items
relating to freemen Lemuel Overton of Perquimans County (1770, 1783) and Admiral Dunstan
of Virginia wishing to reside in North Carolina (1833); petition to General Assembly
from agent of the French Republic asking permission for French political refugees
from Jamaica to land in Wilmington with enslaved people (1795); and commitment of
Rowan County man for beating an enslaved person (1796).
Note about the original and photocopied items. Additional examples of original items
include bills of sales, deeds of gift, "permission" to marry, and an account of the
hire of enslaved persons of a deceased owner. There are also photcopied items (with
some enclosures), in folders numbered 10 to 30 (exception in folder 28), including
bills of sale, deed of emancipation, commitment, court papers, petitions, certification,
claims, letters, depositions, and edited transcripts, and a record of enslaved births,
associated with the Thomas D. Warren family, Edenton, Chowan County, N.C. The photocopies
were apparently selected from public papers in the State Archives a number of years
ago with an intent to publish. The provenance, unfortunately, was not noted. However,
it is known that some were from the secretary of state's papers; others were court
papers were forwarded to the General Assembly with an owner's claim for reimbursement
for an executed slave and in turn the approved claim was probably forwarded to the
state treasurer for payment. In the oversized manuscript box 2, there is a manuscript
letter (four sides) of 2 February 1843 written by a friend of John Brown, Augustus
Wattles of Ohio (abolitionist and educator), to William Smith, Michigan, alias for
David, a fugitive enslaved person of Presley Nelms of Anson County, North Carolina.
There are three copies of published accounts, borrowed from other respositories, that
are each recollections of slavery days, by three different former enslaved people.
Arrangement Note
Arranged chronologically for materials described in 1980 and thereafter, for the most part, in the order received.
Biographical/Historical note
Slaves were imported into North Carolina as early as 1694. From around 1790, free blacks and slaves constituted about twenty-five percent of the population of the state. In 1790 white slaveholders represented 31 percent of the population and 27.7 percent in 1860. Of these slaveholders, two percent owned more than 50 slaves, three percent owned twenty or more slaves, while the majority of slaveholders (70.8 percent) owned fewer than 10 slaves. When the Civil War ended in 1865, North Carolina had more than 360,000 newly emancipated African Americans. [See , ed. William S. Powerll (UNC Press, Chapel Hill, 2006), entry on slavery by Jeffrey J. Crow, et al.]
By 1860 virtually every county in existence in North Carolina had a body of documents that are referred to as "slave papers." These papers were usually accumulated by the clerk of court or by the register of deeds and they include all or part of the following: bills of sale of slaves; criminal and civil cases relating to slaves on such matters as the possession or ownership of particular slaves; petitions to sell slaves; returns from the sale of freedmen of color; and various other types of records involving slaves, who by the laws of that era were treated as property. The papers in the Private Collection Slave Papers represent an attempt to supplement, as is possible, the papers in the county public records. Note that some of the counties papers have not survived due to court house fires, and other losses, and some are still held within certain counties. [See additional information in an Archives Information Circular, in the Search Room of the State Archives of North Carolina: Preliminary Guide to Records Relating to African Americans" in the North Carolina State Archives. Number 17 1980 TWM (Revised 2002 ELI).]
Contents of the Collection
Subject Headings
Acquisitions Information
Items donated, purchased, or compiled over time from a variety of sources. More recent examples include donation in 2005 of manuscript letter by John Eady Simmons, Jr., Maryville, Tenn. Purchase of a photocopy of original owned by New York Public Library, and donated by George Stevenson, Raleigh, N.C.: "Recollection of my slavery days," by William Henry Singleton [ca. 1922]; donation in 1990 by A. Bruce Pruitt of bill of sale of Aquila, aged 9, 1842; and donation in 1989 by Lynne White Belvin, Garner, N.C. of a receipt, 30 April 1844, for purchase of two slaves, Baalam and his wife, Sally.