Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: Folders 421-424 in Series 3 (Subject Files) are entitled “African American Music and Culture”.

Folders 4444-4515 are entitled “Labor Landmarks: African American Landmarks”.

In Suberies 10.1 (Audio materials), Audiocassette FS-11486is entitled “Tape 373: African American Congregational Singing: Nineteenth-Century Roots, 1994 (Smithsonian Folkways release)”

Subseries 10.2 (Video Materials) contains a DVD entitled Plenty of good women dancers: African-American women hoofers from Philadelphia (Digital Video Disc DVD-20002/2)

The additions of 2006, 2009, and 2010 also contain many interrelated subject files with the original materials, including materials on Hudie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter (Folder 2258; 4947-53)

 

 

Abstract: During the 1950s and 1960s, collector, folklorist, and traditional music performer Mike Seeger recorded interviews and performances of many legendary old-time and bluegrass musicians.The collection consists of open reel tape and DAT audio recordings from 1955 to 2002, along with supporting logs and films. The audio recordings include both live performances and Seeger’s interviews with many notable bluegrass and old-time musicians; master tapes from various LP recording projects; and recordings of Seeger’s own band, the New Lost City Ramblers. Of particular interest are live concert recordings featuring such musicians as Tony Alderman, E. C. Ball, Dock Boggs, Buzz Busby, Alex Campbell and Ola Belle Reed, Maybelle Carter, Elizabeth Cotten, Sady Courville, Cousin Emmy, Hazel Dickens, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Roscoe Holcomb, Mississippi John Hurt, Tommy Jarrell, the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Grandpa Jones, the Lilly Brothers, the Louvin Brothers, Carl Martin and Ted Bogan, Dennis McGee, Sam McGee and Kirk McGee (the McGee Brothers), Bill Monroe and Charlie Monroe (the Monroe Brothers), the Osborne Brothers, Don Reno, Marc Savoy, Red Smiley, Kilby Snow, the Stanley Brothers, Ernest V. Stoneman, J. C. Sutphin, Merle Travis, Wade Ward, Mac Wiseman, and the New Lost City Ramblers. Also includied are recordings of various performances and workshops at festivals, including the American Old-Time Music Festival, the Bean Blossom Music Festival, and the Culpeper Music Festival. There are also recordings from the New Lost City Ramblers’ European tour with Adam Landrenau and Cyp Landrenau, Cousin Emmy, and the Stanley Brothers. Performances were recorded at large and small venues, including New River Ranch near Rising Sun, Md.; Sunset Park, Pa.; and the Union Grove Fiddlers Convention in North Carolina. Seeger recorded in-depth interviews with many musicians, including Clarence Tom Ashley, the Benfield Family, Dock Boggs, Charlie Bowman, Maybelle Carter, Tommy Jarrell, Kirk McGee, Sam McGee, Eck Robertson, Leslie Riddle, Kilby Snow, Ernest V. Stoneman, and Wade Ward. Of particular interest is Seeger’s interview with Columbia Records talent scout Frank Walker. Other New Lost City Ramblers recordings include raw tracks and master tapes for the group’s albums; live recordings at folk festivals, colleges, and other venues; and band meetings. Supporting documentation includes Seeger’s logs for all of the audio recordings and an artist index. The Addition of February 2003 contains films of Mike Seeger and other musicians, including films of an old-time music workshop in 1977 and an interview with Mike Seeger. The Addition of July 2009 contains audio recordings featuring many of the musicians already represented in the collection and others, including Eddie Adcock, Howard Armstrong, Kenny Baker, the Balfa Brothers, Dewey Balfa, Ted Bogan, Hylo Brown, Vassar Clements, Sady Courville, Kyle Creed, Bobby Durham, Flick Flaharty, Alice Gerrard, the Goins Brothers, Ted Gossett, Sarah Gunning, Bill Harrell, Doc Hopkins, Tommy Jarrell, Lily May Ledford, Tex Logan, Carl Martin, Jimmy Martin, Dennis McGee, Melvin Robinette, Montana Slim, Ralph Stanley, Carl Story, Tut Taylor, Doc Watson, Nimrod Workman, and others. The addition also contains recordings of Mike Seeger’s interviews with musicologist Charles Seeger. The Addition of May 2010 includes video footage from Seeger’s documentary project, “Talking Feet.”

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: This collection features several recordings of African American artists, as well as discussions of interactions between white and black musicians.

There are live performances of folk singer Elizabeth Cotten [Audiotape FT-3754; FT-3756];  country blues singer Mississippi John Hurt (who was recorded in the 1930s, and rediscovered in the 1960s).

There are also recordings of African American Appalachian string musicians Carl Martin and Ted Bogan [Audiocassette FS-9655; 9656; 9658-60; 9689-90; 9694; 9696]

There are also a number of Caucasian musicians who describe being influenced by African American musical traditions, such as the Seeger’s own band the New Lost City Ramblers [See Series 1: Audio Recordings, 1955-2002] , as well as the Jim Kweskin Jug Band [Audiotape FT-5704].

There are also a number of interviews, including from Maybell Carter [Audiotape FT-8821], Clarence Tom Ashley [Audiotape FT-5582], and Dock Boggs [Several recordings, including Audiotape FT-5603 thru FT-5611] discussing the influence of African American musicians on their music.

Mike Seeger’s documentary “Talking Feet” is available online through the SFC on Folkstreams. Click here to access the film and see other documentaries.

Abstract: Lizzie Chambers Hall was the wife of W. T. Hall, pastor of Baptist churches in Danville, Va., 1897-1907, and Roxborough, Pa., 1913- 1928. The Halls were African-Americans. A scrapbook, compiled by Lizzie Chambers Hall, of religious tracts and broadsides, memorabilia, printed and manuscript poems and prayers, and clippings; and scattered family correspondence, 1925-1938 and undated.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: This collection consists primarily of a scrapbook compiled by Hall, the wife of Dr. W. T. Hall, pastor of High Street African American Baptist Church in Danville, Virginia (1897-1904); vice- president of the Virginia Baptist State Convention (1908); and pastor of the Galilee Baptist Church, Roxboro, Pennsylvania (1913- 1928). The volume includes religious materials, memorabilia, poems and prayers, photographs, and family correspondence.

Abstract: Pendleton was a graduate of the United States Military Academy, an Episcopal clergyman and schoolmaster in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, a Confederate brigadier general, serving under Joseph E. Johnston and Robert E. Lee, and rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Lexington, Va., 1853-1883. Family letters to and from William Nelson Pendleton and his wife, and from his children and Page, Nelson, Pendleton, and other relatives, giving an extensive picture of the private and public life of Virginians through most of the 19th century. The 35 items dated earlier than 1837 are Nelson and Page family letters. Approximately 1,400 items were written during the Civil War years, including military communications among officers in the Virginia theatre of war, correspondence concerning promotions, personal rivalries and criticism among Confederate officers, letters to and from Mrs. Pendleton at Lexington, Va., and other members of the family. There is correspondence before, during, and after the war concerning the Episcopal Church and specifically the affairs of the Lexington church and threats to Pendleton’s tenure as rector, and (from 1870 onwards) Pendleton’s work in raising a Robert E. Lee memorial fund. There are also some papers relating to Pendleton’s life in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland before he came to Lexington in 1853.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Letters cover such topics as his opinions on slavery; slaves building Confederate fortifications (1861); thoughts of slaves on possible Yankee victory (1862); instructions on handling rebellious slaves (1863); the postwar situation with African Americans (1865); and justifications of the institution of slavery using passages from the Bible (1880). The collection also includes an Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society (1881).

Abstract: Letters and other papers collected by William E. Uzzell of Atlanta, Ga. Included are the following: five letters, 1857, from David Bisset, Weldon, N.C., and Anderson, S.C., about railroad construction; Chatham County, N.C., legal documents, 1787-1822; letters from [I?] J. Howe, a Confederate soldier from South Carolina, and others about conditions at Camp Guerrin, S.C., and other Confederate and Union camps; letters from prisoners at Point Lookout, Md.; family and financial letters and other items, 1854-1880, of Daniel W. Jordan, a South Carolina planter; letters, 1840-1845, concerning tobacco processing in Lynchburg, Va.; letters, 1872-1901, to J. M. Sykes of Oxford, N.C., about Republican Party activities and other matters; and a diary kept by William Uzzell during the University of North Carolina’s “Transcontinental Student Tour” of 1930.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Included in Folders 7-8 (Miscellaneous Letters) is a letter from 22 April 1840 by George Tuthill of Pennsylvania to William Stone of Massachusetts, expressing concern that the election of Benjamin Harrison may jeopardize the abolitionist movement. There is also a letter (14 April 1855) from Samuel Roston in Independence, Missouri, commenting on a pro-slavery election victory in the Kansas Territory.

Abstract: Bill of sale, July 1839, documenting the purchase of a 17-year-old male mulatto slave by John W. Suttle from Weeks Parker in Philadelphia County, Pa. Attached to the bill of sale is a cartoon, ca. 1861-1865, depicting contraband slaves escaping to Union forces at Fort Monroe, Va., during the Civil War.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract: Lawyer, planter, state official, Confederate general, Redeemer, Democratic United States senator from North Carolina, 1872-1895, and minister to Mexico, 1895-1897. Correspondence, chiefly 1868-1904, relating to the political, economic, and racial aspects of Reconstruction in North Carolina, particularly the machinations of George William Swepson; to Ransom’s plantations in northeastern North Carolina, particularly in regard to cotton marketing and labor; to national and state party politics, 1868- 1904; and to his diplomatic service in Mexico. Much of the collection is Ransom’s papers as a senator, including correspondence with politicians and constituents covering most of the major issues of the time: race relations; federal actions affecting southern agriculture and industry, including the tariff, the silver question, and agrarian unrest; women’s suffrage; and many others. Also included are papers relating to a variety of family and business concerns. Material on Ransom’s Civil War career and the first three years of Reconstruction is relatively slight and there is nothing about his prewar political career.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Papers relate to the political, economic, and racial aspects of the Reconstruction; management of plantation and former slaves (1880- 1885); the conduct of African-American plantation workers (1890- 1892, 1897); the political tide among African Americans in North Carolina (1894-5); a letter written by William Cawthorne, an African American lecturing to Good Templar lodges in Philadelphia, concerning the racial prejudices of the North versus the South (1874); the resignation of a student at West Point, in part induced by the necessity of close association with an African-American cadet (1875);

There is also correspondence related to the desire of John H. Collins, an African-American official, to become minister to Haiti (1877).

There is 10 December 1875 letter from former slave and former Union Army Chaplain Garland H. White of Virginia, requesting that Pierce Lafayette, an African American Democratic preacher, be appointed police officer in Washington, D.C. (Folders 13a – 13b). There is also a a 3 November 1893 letter from Garland H. White describing his work with the Democratic Party and requesting to confer with Matt W. Ransom on organizing local African American Democrats following the next election.

There is also a letter of 16 May 1887 from A. M. Noble of Johnston County, N.C., expressing outrage that the Democratic administration had not removed an African American mail agent serving on the Greensboro to Goldsboro route. More complaints can be found in the correspondence in 1893.

Also included in the correspondence is a  4 June 1891 letter from F. S. Faison of Garysburg, N.C., notifying Ransom that “the opposition” would be holding a meeting, at which several African Americans were going to speak, and asking if Ransom would join them in “capturing the meeting.”

Abstract: Olive Matthews Stone was a sociologist involved in social welfare and race relations. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Carolina in 1939 and was later associated with the Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina. She was associate professor in the School of Social Welfare, University of California at Los Angeles, 1949-1964. Papers reflect Stone’s interests in social welfare, race relations, southern farmers, the training of social workers, and her own family history. Included are materials pertaining to a study of various aspects of the lives of African Americans in Gee’s Bend, Wilcox County, Ala.; observations on group relations and tensions in India, China, and Japan from a trip she took under the auspices of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1931-1932; anti-lynching efforts; and Stone’s involvement in the Southern Committee for People’s Rights (originally called the Southern League for People’s Rights), the Southern Negro Youth Congress, and several biracial conferences on race relations, including the Institute of Race Relations held at Swarthmore College and the Shaw University conference, both in 1934. Prominent correspondents include Howard Kester, Joseph S. Gelders, George Stoney, Josephus Daniels, various officers of the American Friends Service Committee regarding the Institute of Race Relations, Katharine D. Lumpkin, Sam H. Franklin Jr. of the Delta Cooperative Farm; Virginia Durr; C. Vann Woodward; Clyde Johnson; and Arthur Raper. Also included are correspondence about other matters, financial and legal materials, writings, clippings, certificates, some nineteenth-century family items, genealogical materials, printed items, and photographs.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Correspondence includes information on Stone’s involvement in the Southern Committee for People’s Rights, the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, and the Southern Negro Youth Congress (See Folders 27-30).

Much of the correspondence (from 1934-1973) discusses such topics as anti-lynching efforts, as well as two interracial conferences on race relations (the Institute of Race Relations held at Swarthmore College in July of 1934, and the Negro-White Conference at Shaw University in fall of 1934). Materials in this series have been digitized and are available online. Click here to link to the finding aid for this collection and to access the digital content.

Folders 23-24 contain information  on various aspects of the lives of African Americans in Gee’s Bend, Wilcox County, Alabama (1962, 1977).

Folder 34 contains a copy of Stone’s published article, “”Present Position of the Negro Farm Population” (1936).

Abstract: Fries, Shaffner, and related families of Salem (now Winston-Salem), N.C. Francis Lavin Fries (1812-1863), with his brother, Henry (1825-1905), owned and operated woolen and cotton mills and a general store in Salem. Fries was active in the Moravian church and in local government and politics, and served in the North Carolina legislature, 1858-1859. He married Lisetta Marie Vogler (1820-1903), also of Salem, and with her had seven children, including Caroline Louisa (1839-1922), called Carrie, who married John Francis (“Frank”) Shaffner (1838-1908); and Mary Elizabeth (1844-1927), who married Rufus Lenoir Patterson (1830-1879).Shaffner studied medicine in Philadelphia and Salem, where in 1861 he joined the Confederate medical service and was named assistant surgeon of the 33rd North Carolina Regiment and was captured briefly by federal forces, May-June 1862. In 1863 he joined the 4th North Carolina Regiment. Caroline Fries and J. F. Shaffner were married in 1865 and together had five children. Mary (Fries) Patterson and her husband lived during the early years of their marriage at “Palmyra,” the Patterson family home in Caldwell County, N.C. Primarily personal and family correspondence of Francis Lavin Fries, his daughter Caroline (“Carrie”) Louisa Fries Shaffner, and her husband John Francis (“Frank”) Shaffner. There is correspondence, 1850-1860, between members of the Fries family visiting in Philadelphia and other family members at home in Salem; letters to J. F. Shaffner at Jefferson Medical College from members of the Fries family; and scattered letters from Francis Fries on business trips and while attending the North Carolina state legislature in 1858. During the Civil War period there are letters from J. F. Shaffner with the Confederate Army in North Carolina and Virginia and letters to him from Caroline and Mary Fries describing life in Salem.Also included are letters to Caroline from Mary, after the latter’s marriage and removal to Caldwell County, N.C., mostly dealing with domestic and family affairs. There are scattered business letters of J. F. Shaffner, 1868-1887. Volumes include diaries of Caroline (Fries) Shaffner, 1861-1876; surgical notes, 1862-1863, by J. F. Shaffner; his diary, 1863- 1865; and an address by him about his Civil War experiences.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Letters discuss Carrie Fries’ social encounters with abolitionists in Philadelphia in February 1860 and news of the health, illnesses, and deaths among Fries slaves in Salem in March thru May 1860 (See Folders 4- 6).

Abstract: George Hairston, tobacco planter of Pittsylvania County, Va.; his wife Anne Elizabeth Hairston George (1834-1925), who, after Hairston’s death, married Forney George; the Hairston’s son Samuel (1865-1933); and George’s first cousin Louisa H. Watkins (fl. 1851-1872), her husband Peter Wilson Watkins (fl. 1851-1865) of Henry County, Va., and their son Hairston Watkins (fl. 1864-1865). Chiefly correspondence and business papers of George Hairston, 1850-1860, and his estate papers, 1866-1898. There are also letters and financial papers of Anne Elizabeth Hairston George, Samuel Hairston, Major Peter Hairston (1752-1832), and George’s father-in-law William Lash (fl. 1834-1896). George Hairston’s correspondence is mostly letters with his older brother Peter W. Hairston (1819-1886).Topics include family and neighborhood life; plantation affairs, including conditions among the slaves; Virginia politics; estate settlements; civilian and military experiences during the Civil War, including the service of African-American soldiers and the service of Hairston Watkins with the 24th Virginia Cavalry Regiment and as a prisoner at Point Lookout, Md.; the work of freedmen in Virginia; and postwar finances.Of note is a series of letters in the 1850s concerning Robert Hairston’s estate in Mississippi, which he tried to leave to his child by a slave. Family plantations in Pittsylvania and Henry counties, Va., and Davie and Stokes counties, N.C., are documented. Business papers include deeds and land surveys, accounts, receipts, wills, land rental agreements, clippings, advertising circulars, programs, poems, school grade reports, calling cards, and line drawings.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights:Letters discuss plantation affairs, including conditions among slaves in North Carolina (1842-1861); antebellum free blacks in Philadelphia (1847); the well-attended execution of a black man in Virginia for murdering another black man (1844); the enrollment of black soldiers by Yankee forces (1864); a “Negro tournament” in Stokes County, North Carolina (1876); African-American voting in Virginia (1884); and accounts of crops produced by freedmen in Virginia or North Carolina (1866-98). Also included are a slave bill of sale and slave lists (1840, 1844-1865) and information concerning the attempt of Hairston’s step-grandfather, Robert Hairston, to will his lands in Lowndes County, Mississippi, to a slave child he fathered (1844-1865).