Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: Included are an interview and 32 Ohio River songs, sacred songs, and camp meeting songs sung by “Uncle” Jim Drain, African American singer from Paducah, Ky. [2 sounds recordings, FT 861-862]

Abstract: Timothy Duffy (1963- ), folklorist and musician, produced field recordings of the American roots tradition as an undergraduate at Warren Wilson College and while working on a folklore master’s degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A few years after graduating in 1991, he co-founded the Music Maker Relief Foundation (MMRF), a non-profit organization near Hillsborough, N.C., that helps southern roots tradition musicians meet their financial needs and gain recognition for their work. The collection includes chiefly sound recordings, but there are also artist files, CD liner proofs, correspondence, photographs, posters, documentation, video recordings, DVDs, and miscellaneous items. Most of the material relates to Duffy’s work with MMRF. Sound recordings include Duffy’s folklore thesis fieldwork in the Black Mountains of North Carolina and recordings of blues, gospel, and R& B artists such as Walt Davis, Ray Greene, Jeeter Riddle, James Guitar Slim Stephens, Etta Baker, Willa Mae Buckner, Guitar Gabriel, Cool John Ferguson, Cootie Stark, Cora Mae Bryant, Sammy Mayfield, Neal Pattman, Beverly Guitar Watkins, Jerry McCain, Essie Mae Brooks, Precious Bryant, Preston Fulp, Macavine Hayes, Algia Mae Hinton, John Dee Holeman, Captain Luke Mayer Luther, Taj Mahal, and the Greene Acres Picking Party. Some of the sound recordings include interviews with artists.

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: There are sound recordings, oral histories, and artist files for numerous gospel, R&B, and blues artists.

Abstract: J. Taylor Doggett is a businessman and writer who has extensively researched, among various other interests, the 1950s R&B group the 5 Royales, swing bandleaders, and musicians associated with the University of North Carolina. He lives in Greensboro, N.C. The collection consists of three series: 5 Royales Materials; UNC Bandleaders Materials; and Other R&B, Jazz, and Doo Wop Materials. The Five Royales series documents Doggett’s extensive research and collecting efforts relating to the Winston-Salem, N.C., R&B vocal group of that name and the careers of constituent members Lowman Pauling, Clarence Paul, Curtis Pauling, Obadiah Carter, Johnny Tanner, Eugene Tanner, Otto Jeffries, and William Samuels. There is also music of the Royal Sons, EL Pauling and the Royalton, and the Charlie Little Jazz Ferguson Orchestra. The UNC Bandleaders series reflects Doggett’s interest in sweet jazz bandleaders associated with the University of North Carolina, including Kay Kyser, Hal Kemp, Skinnay Ennis, and John Scott Trotter. Also in this series are other performers, including Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge, Harry Babbitt, Merwyn Bogue (Ish Kabibble), Libby Holman, Georgia Carroll Kyser, Ginny Simms, and Bo Thorpe. The 5 Royales and UNC Bandleaders series both include audio and video recordings, printed materials, and correspondence. The Other R&B, Doo Wop, Jazz, and Blues Materials series contains printed materials and recordings that reflect Doggett’s broader musical interests.

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Abstract: Kevin Delaney was born in 1946 in Washington, D.C. Between 1970 and 1974 he traveled through Ireland, Scotland, and the American Midwest and Southeast, recording country, blues, gospel, bluegrass, and old-time musicians and performers who otherwise might not have been heard. The collection documents the culture and history of Irish and American music. It consists primarily of field recordings made by Kevin Delaney in various regions of Ireland and the American Southeast. There are also many dubbed recordings of both Irish and American folk music. The Irish field recordings are primarily individual performances, while the dubbed recordings are groups of musicians playing different instruments, including fiddle, uillean pipes, spoons, flute, and pennywhistle. There are also some examples of Gaelic and shape-note singing. Songs include jigs, airs, reels, strathspeys, and others. The American recordings are composed primarily of fiddle and banjo music, along with some spoken word material. Some recordings are of Tommy Jarrell. There is also a practice tape of Delaney on fiddle and guitar. Several commercial audiocassettes are included, as well as dubbed recordings of jazz, blues, and pop music. Also included are Delaney’s personal notebooks documenting the musicians he recorded while in the field, along with several posters, fliers, a collection of musicians’ autographs, and a photograph.

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: Includes a poster probably from a musical score, entitled “Old Black Joe”, arranged by J.W. Turner

Abstract: Speeches to Confederate veterans’ groups, recollections of North Carolina and Virginia soldiers and civilians, and biographical sketches of Confederate generals and Civil War battlegrounds. Items include reminiscences of Confederate soldiers in the 3rd Virginia Volunteers, and the 35th, 59th, and the 67th North Carolina Infantry Regiments, describing camp life, troop movements, and battles; a description of an expedition from Marion, N.C., to the coast during the Civil War, using slaves and equipment to obtain salt from seawater; reminiscences of family life, slaves, household work, cooking, and dyeing on Meadow Hill plantation in New Hanover (now Pender) County, N.C.; and several addresses on Robert E. Lee and John Hunt Morgan.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract: Edward Augustus Wild (1825-1891) of Brookline, Mass., was a federal officer with the 1st Massachusetts Infantry, 1861-1862; 35th Massachusetts Infantry, 1862-1863; and with the African Brigade (1863-1865), a brigade formed from the 55th Massachusetts Regiment (colored) and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd North Carolina (colored) regiments. The collection includes correspondence, lists, and a military directive relating to African-American federal troops and Confederate guerillas in northeastern North Carolina, 1863-1864, and miscellaneous material relating to Company A, 1st Massachusetts Infantry. Union Brigadier General Edward Augustus Wild is the central figure in the papers.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract: Contempo was a journal of literature and social commentary published by Milton Abernethy and Anthony Buttitta in Chapel Hill, N.C., from 1931 to 1934. Incoming correspondence, typescripts of literary works, clippings of articles, and photographs pertaining to Contempo. Among the correspondents are Conrad Aiken (one letter, one poem), Sherwood Anderson (four letters), Kay Boyle (three letters, one long poem), James Branch Cabell (one letter), Erskine Caldwell (one letter, one short story), Hart Crane (two letters, one poem), e. e. cummings (one letter), Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) (one long poem), T.S. Eliot (one letter), William Faulkner (two letters, one note), Langston Hughes (3 letters); H.L. Mencken (three letters), Eugene O’Neill (one letter), Ezra Pound (twelve letters, one clipping), Upton Sinclair (ten letters), Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (two letters), Wallace Stevens (two letters), and William Carlos Williams (seven letters, one article).

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: There are three letters and a photograph of Langston Hughes in the collection.

Abstract: This collection is comprised primarily of broadcast master videotapes in cassettes generated by television station WTVD in Durham, N.C., 1976-1992. Included are tapes from locally produced shows “Reflections,” “Reel Perspectives,” “Primetime,” “Primetime Saturday,” and “Primetime Sunday.” The videotapes treat a wide variety of subjects, many of which focus on community-related issues and African American life in North Carolina. Programs feature personalities of local and national significance, including African American journalists Ervin Hester, Cathy Stowe, Gail Paschall, and Miriam Thomas. Also included are production and background materials relating to some of the programs; a small number of transcripts, only one of which corresponds to a videotape in the collection; and a few unidentified open-reel videotapes and films.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract: Witherspoon family was of Hillsboro, N.C., and McDowall family was of Camden, S.C. Principal Witherspoon family members include John Witherspoon (1790-1853), Presbyterian clergyman, teacher, and planter, and his wife Susan Davis Kollock Witherspoon (fl. 1790s-1850s). McDowall family members include the Witherspoons’ daugther, Susan Witherspoon McDowall (fl. 1830s-1850s), and her husband, William D. McDowall (fl. 1820s-1850s), partner in the firm of Shannon and McDowall of Charleston, S.C. The McDowalls made their permanent home in Camden, S.C. The collection is chiefly letters from John and Susan Davis Witherspoon to their daughter, Susan Witherspoon McDowall, and her husband, William D. McDowall. Topics relate to family matters, particularly the health of various family members and the precarious financial situation the Witherspoons faced in balancing John’s desire for a better position within the Presbyterian Church, his teaching ambitions, and his planting endeavors. Discussions of the latter topic include management of slaves on Tusculum, the family plantation, and the sale of these slaves when the family decided to leave Hillsboro, N.C. Also documented are journeys of John to Greensboro, Ala., and of Susan Witherspoon and her sickly daughter, Mary, to consult with doctors in Philadelphia. On the McDowall side, the chief topics relate to the raising of their young family in Camden, S.C. Also included is a small amount of information about William McDowall’s business endeavors, notably with the Charleston firm of Shannon and McDowall, which seems to have handled cotton sales, and a few letters from other of the McDowalls’ relatives and friends.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights:  Letters discuss  the management of enslaved persons  on “Tusclum,” the family plantation, and the sale of these individuals in 1852 (Folder 12).

Abstract: Members of the Wilson and Hairston families were planters and merchants of Henry and Pittsylvania counties, Va., and Davie, Rockingham, and Stokes counties, N.C. Peter Hairston (1752-1832), of Pittsylvania, later Henry County, Va., was a merchant of Stokes and Rockingham counties, N.C., and owner of several plantations, including Royal Oak, Sauratown Hill, and Cooleemee Hill. His son-in-law, Peter Wilson (1770-1813), husband of Ruth Stoval Hairston (1783-1852), was a planter of Berry Hill, Brierfield, and Goose Pond, all in Pittsylvania County, Va., and partner in his father-in-law’s mercantile business. Ruth Stoval (Hairston) Wilson married second Robert Hairston (1783-1852), of Leatherwood Plantation in Henry County and who, circa 1837, moved to Mississippi to manage his properties there, leaving Ruth in Virginia. Robert’s brother, Samuel Hairston (1788-1875), of Oak Hill Plantation, Pittsylvania County, was one of the wealthiest men in Virginia, owning plantations there and in North Carolina and approximately 1700 slaves. His eldest son, Peter Wilson Hairston (1819-1886), lived his adult life at Cooleemee Hill in Davie County, N.C. Peter Wilson Hairston’s niece, Ruth Hairston (1863-1936) married Alfred Varley Sims (1864-1944), civil engineer who worked for several railroads, taught engineering, and worked for the Knickerbocker Trust Company as general manager and chief engineer of the Cuba Eastern Railroad Company based in Guantanamo, Cuba, 1905-1908. Business correspondence, financial and legal papers and scattered personal correspondence of six generations of the Wilson and Hairston families. Among the activities represented are the sale of tobacco through Virginia commission merchants; the service of Peter Hairston (1752-1832) as a deputy sheriff in Henry County, Va., mainly 1751-1788; the manumission of six Hairston slaves in 1832 through the American Colonization Society; purchase of supplies for plantation and household use; and activities of the Sandy Creek, Mayo, County Line, and Staunton River Baptist associations, 1833-1868. Civil War materials are few and consist of scattered family letters and some receipts for foodstuffs sold to the Confederate Army. Throughout the collection there is material concerning the management of the various family plantations. Approximately one-fourth of the collection consists of the personal and professional correspondence of Alfred Varley Sims as a professor at the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), 1895-1904, and as a civil engineer, and includes materials related to his time in Cuba, 1905-1908, and to his connections with various southern and Cuban railroads and other businesses in Cuba and elsewhere.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The papers include bills of sale for an enslaved individual between 1751-1788 (Folders 1b-8); receipts for hiring out enslaved persons between 1789-1813 (Folders 8-75); jailors’ bills for keeping runaway enslaved persons; and doctors’ bills for attending enslaved people between 1814-1832 (Folders 76-128).

The collection also contains five letters  from 1832 about the American Colonization Society and the manumission of six formerly enslaved people who were sent to Liberia ; lists of clothing for slaves; work agreements with former slaves between 1833-1860; slave lists; an order to return a enslaved individual (1780- 1799).

There are letters discussing the legality of a will designating a “young mulatto child” sole heir to an estate and discussing arrangements for moving slaves from one plantation to another  between 1830-1860, and a letter written by a white man describing a fight with a African American man in 1892.

Several volumes (Volume 63 in Folder 458;  Volume 103 in Folder 508; con’t) contain information on the sale and purchase of enslaved individuals, as well as slaves lists  and lists of clothes and other items given out to slaves. A memorandum book also mentions runaway slaves  in 1800 (Volume 83 in Folder 479).

Volume 169 in Folder 58 also contains an accounting of money or goods paid to formerly enslaved individuals.