Abstract: Mary L. Woods was an African American woman from Smithfield, Va. The collection is a photograph album belonging to Mary L. Woods containing 69 snapshots of friends and family members, labeled with names, dates, and comments. The images are posed portraits of African Americans, including a few children; they were taken outdoors in rural settings, urban settings, and at the beach. Locations mentioned include Smithfield, Va., Yorktown, Va., Portsmouth, Va., and Washington, D.C.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract: John Hughes was a Patrick County, Va., planter. The collection is chiefly court orders and debt settlements concerning John Hughes. Also included are several slave bills of sale.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract: The Atlantic Coast Line was based in Wilmington, N.C., and possessed rail that ran through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida. The Atlantic Coast Line later formed part of the CSX Transportation System. The collection contains records, 1900s-1950s, of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Files are divided between President’s Files, which document railroad operations and relations with other companies, and Tax Files, which contain records of federal, state, and local taxes paid by the Atlantic Coast Line. There are also a set of financial journals and a series of files related to the reorganization of the Florida East Coast Railway Company. Addition of 2011 consists of records, 1918-1963, of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company Police Department. Reports document often extensive investigations into crimes such as trespassing and vandalism, especially by juveniles; petty larceny of railroad and personal property; vagrancy and train hopping; public drunkenness; and assault. Reports typically mention age, race, and sex of the suspects, many of whom were African American, and often personal or family information. There are also lost luggage claims, reports of injuries sustained in the rail yard, and personnel records that document relief checks, retirement traditions, job applications, and funerals.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The addition of October 2011 contains records of the Atlantic Coastline Railroad Company Police Department, and includes investigative reports and arrest records for juveniles as well as adults. Many of the records involve African American men and women, suspected of crimes as well as victims.

Abstract: Members of the Garber family lived in Mount Jackson, Shenandoah County, Va. J.S. Garber worked on a labor gang and for the United States Corps of Engineers at sites in Fort Stevens, Or.; Fort Assiniboine, Mont.; and Fort Columbia, Wash. J.W. Garber, brother of J.S. Garber, lived with his wife and children on a farm in Mount Jackson, where they planted and harvested grain, fruits, and vegetables, and raised and sold livestock. He also served as a Republican town supervisor and often traveled to Richmond, Va., to solicit funds for his school district. J.W. Garber had at least two sons, W. Hoyle Garber and Robert Lee Garber, and a daughter, Eve Garber. J.S. Garber and J.W. Garber had a brother, Isaac N. Garber, who attended Bridgewater College in Virginia, and possibly one sister, who married Harry Strickler in 1935 and lived in Luray, Va. The collection consists of about 230 letters, chiefly to J.W. Garber from his brother, J.S. Garber, and from J.W. Garber to his son, W. Hoyle Garber. Letters, 1901-1908, from J.S. Garber to J.W. Garber were written chiefly while J.S. Garber’s traveled across the country for his job. Topics include inquiries about social and family news from home; the weather; his opinions on the various states in which he traveled, including Ohio, Oregon, North Dakota, New York, Montana, and Virginia; the dangers of his work at various installations; politics, including his thoughts on the Russo-Japanese War; the sale of land and crops; comments on African Americans; a description of the death of a young woman during an abortion; and the hiring of hands. Letters, 1932-1936, were written by J.W. Garber to his son, W. Hoyle Garber, while the latter was attending college at Randolph Macon Academy and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Topics include the sale of local farms and land, Grange meetings, local politics and economy, and Hoyle’s education. There are also several letters from Hoyle’s siblings and friends. Topics include general news from home, farm work, rabbit hunting and trapping, social activities, and the high school in Mount Jackson. Also included are a few miscellaneous newspaper clippings and a photograph of two unknown men in military uniforms.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Garber comments on African Americans throughout his correspondence. A letter of 17 July 1904 references the Russo – Japanese War, and makes disparaging comments about African Americans.

A letter dated 20 November 1904 discusses race relations, politics, and the national presidential election.

Letters from 1 February, 5 February  and 8 February 1906 discuss African American laborers in Mason, Va., and an African American neighbor of Garber’s with knowledge of horses.

Abstract: Norvell Winsboro Wilson (1834-1878) was a Baptist minister in Chapel Hill, N.C., and Hillsborough, N.C., 1861-1867; Farmville, Va., and Richmond, Va., 1867-1875; and New Orleans, La., 1877-1878. The collection includes the intermittent diary, 1862-1878, recording pastoral visits, Baptist conventions, social news, and cash accounts of Norvell W. Wilson; a scrapbook of clippings relating to Wilson’s career and writings; miscellaneous family letters, 1842-1869, from members of the Scott and Pearman families of Virginia with no apparent relationship to the rest of this collection. Letters are from family members, possibly mulatto or part Indian, who had gone to Ohio and then Canada, describing their life and feelings to their relatives or friends in New Kent County, Va.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Wilson’s diary contains many references to attending “colored conferences” and preaching to enslaved and possibly free African Americans. Folder 2 also contains letters from the Scott and Pearman families, who are possibly mulatto or part Indian.

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: Joseph Button was Virginia Commisioner of Insurance, 1925-1929. He also served on the Virginia Military Institute’s Board of Visitors and was a member of the Noble Order of the Blue Goose and of the Shriners. He became president of Union Life Insurance Company, Richmond, Va., in 1929. Chiefly correspondence, 1897 and 1924-1934, relating to Joseph Button’s position as Virginia Commissioner of Insurance, activities in national and state Democratic Party politics, service on V.M.I.’s Board of Visitors, community service, and memberships in fraternal organizations. Letters about insurance matters have slight reference to Button’s official activities as Commissioner of Insurance. Many of these letters are requests from associates for help in getting jobs with insurance companies for their sons or other relatives, while others relate to sales of insurance company stock and other financial deals.Political letters are mostly acknowledgements of financial and other support for Democratic candidates, including one in 1925 from Governor-elect Harry F. Byrd. Button’s community service is documented in a letter, dated 5 July 1927, in which he was asked to serve on the White Advisory Committee for the Richmond Colored Community Hospital Campaign.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Correspondence reflects his involvement with the White Advisory Committee for the Richmond Colored Community Hospital Campaign (1927).

Abstract: Mordecai family of Warrenton and Raleigh, N.C., and Richmond, Va. Prominent family members included Jacob Mordecai (1762-1838); his sons Samuel (1786-1865), Solomon (1792-1869), and George W. (1801-1871); and his daughters Ellen (1790-1884), Emma (1812-1906), and Rachel Mordecai Lazarus (1788-1838). The collection consists of primarily personal letters (bulk 1810-1850) containing detailed information about family, social, and local events in Richmond and Petersburg, Va.; Raleigh, Warrenton, and Wilmington, N.C.; and Mobile, Ala. Subjects include the Mordecai Female Academy at Warrenton, N.C., 1809-1818; the Richmond Theater fire of 1811; correspondence between Rachel Mordecai Lazarus and novelist Maria Edgeworth; activities in Virginia, North Carolina, and New Orleans during the War of 1812; travels of family members; Judaism; Ellen Mordecai’s writing and publishing; and births, deaths, and domestic activities. Emma Mordecai’s journal, 1864-1865, chronicles the fall of Richmond, Va. The Addition of January 2007 includes personal letters between family members; 1816 letters by Maria Edgeworth and Richard Lovell Edgeworth responding to Rachel Mordecai Lazarus’s letter concerning Edgeworth’s literary treatment of Jews; and reminiscences, song lyrics, and fragments. The Addition of September 2007 includes letters written to and by Mordecai family members, 1865 and 1916-1917, and a poem dated 1945. The Addition of December 2007 contains the three-volume “A Memoir of Maria Edgeworth with a Selection from Her Letters by the late Mrs. Edgeworth” (unpublished) with accompanying notes tipped in. The Addition of April 2011 includes a volume of typewritten copies of correspondence between Rachel Mordecai Lazarus and Maria Edgeworth, 1815-1838, with one 1816 letter to Lazarus from Edgeworth’s father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth. The first entry is a copy of the 1815 letter written to Maria Edgeworth by Rachel Mordecai Lazarus, in which Lazarus questioned Edgeworth’s treatment of Jewish characters in earlier works (see the Addition of January 2007). In a September 1823 letter, Maria Edgeworth described her friendship with Sir Walter Scott. There are also several 1831 letters that reference the Southampton, Va., slave insurrection led by Nat Turner; correspondence between Maria Edgeworth and Rachel Mordecai Lazarus and Alfred Mordecai following Rachel Mordecai Lazarus’s death in 1838; a sketch of Edgeworthstown, Maria Edgeworth’s residence in Ireland; a lithograph of Richard Lovell Edgeworth; and two 1907 letters between Rosa Mordecai and Civil War author Morris Schaff. The Addition of May 2012 contains a small handmade account book with manuscript entries, presumably made by Ellen Mordecai. The account book was laid in a published copy of History of a Heart, written by Ellen Mordecai and published in 1845. Entries document contributions to charities and for religious purposes from the proceeds of sales of History of a Heart.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Suberies 2.2 Miscellaneous Financial and Legal Papers contains an 1853 document discussing the division of slaves belonging to Samuel Simpson of Craven County, North Carolina (see Folder 94).

There are also several 1831 letters that refer to Nat Turner’s rebellion in Southampton County, Va. (See Folder 126).

Abstract: William G. Dickson was a University of North Carolina alumnus, attorney, and state representative of Burke (now Caldwell) County, N.C.; wife Peggy McDowell Dickson (1783-1854); father General Joseph Dickson (1745-1825); brother James Dickson; and son Robert Moffit Dickson (1820-1855). The collection is chiefly business and personal papers of William G. Dickson and members of his family, and personal correspondence and a few other items of the Abernethy and Glass families of North Carolina and Virginia. Correspondence primarily concerns local news of family, neighbors, and friends, with some miscellaneous legal and business materials. Included are items, 1795-1799, related to Dickson’s student days at the University of North Carolina; letters, 1814-1818 and 1825, from relatives and friends in Bedford and Rutherford counties, Tenn., concerning the poor health of slaves, local members of the militia in the Creek Indian Wars, one man’s military service and capture during the War of 1812, land sales, and the deaths of Dickson’s parents; letters, 1852-1855, from Robert M. Dickson and his companions in California prospecting for gold; letters, 1857-1860, from students attending three North Carolina female academies; an 1860 letter from Zebulon B. Vance, discussing the proposed state convention and secession; many Civil War-era letters commenting on Confederate military life and wartime social and economic conditions in North Carolina and Virginia; and letters, 1865, about freed slaves leaving their former masters, hatred for the “Yankee Devils,” and the imprisonment of a white man in Morganton, N.C., for shooting a black man. Also included are five volumes, 1837-1866, apparently kept by various members of the Abernethy family, containing business accounts, legal documents, original prose and verse, and a few scattered letters. Of particular interest are a journal, 1837-1852, probably kept by M.T. Abernethy, recording farming activities and the production output of an iron forge that employed slave labor at Kings Mountain and Lincolnton, N.C.; and a court minute docket for Caldwell County, N.C., covering the 1855-1857 terms.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The collection includes letters discussing the poor health of Tennessee slaves (1814-1818); freed slaves leaving their masters (1865); and the imprisonment of a white man in Morganton, North Carolina, for shooting a black man (1865). A personal journal records the production output of a Kings Mountain iron forge that employed slave labor (1837- 1852).

Abstract: Francis (“Frank”) Gildart Ruffin (1816-1892), was a planter of Chesterfield County, Va., Confederate colonel, 2nd auditor of Virginia, editor, and political writer. Ruffin served as chairman of the Virginia Sinking Fund Commission, secretary of the Miller Manual Labor School, and editor of the Richmond (Va.) “Dispatch.” Other prominent family members represented in the collection include Ruffin’s uncle, Albert G. Ruffin (d. 1829), lawyer in Mississippi and Alabama and planter in Hanover County, Va.; Albert’s wife, Eliza Roane Ruffin (fl. 1825-1837); and Eliza’s father, Spencer Roane (1762-1822), state senator and judge, of Hanover County, Va. Chiefly postwar business papers of Francis (“Frank”) Gildart Ruffin, but there are also scattered antebellum and Civil War items for Ruffin and the antebellum legal, financial, and personal papers of Ruffin’s relatives, Albert and Eliza (Roane) Ruffin, and Spencer Roane. These include papers relating to Albert Ruffin’s law practice, to Albert and Eliza’s plantation and family affairs, and to Spencer Roane’s purchases of land. Correspondence includes both personal and business letters. Antebellum financial and legalitems consist of deeds, bonds, receipts, court petitions, warrants, pleas, court dockets, plantation accounts, and slave bills of sale. Postwar business papers include correspondence, accounts, reports, legal documents, maps, clippings, and other items pertaining to the Office of the 2nd Auditor of Virginia, the Sinking Fund, the Miller Manual Labor School, and F. G. Ruffin’s writings. Miscellaneous items include advertising circulars, broadsides, and an undated travel diary kept by F. G. Ruffin in England. Of particular interest are papers relating to land claims, estate law, and financial arrangements in the frontier territories of Mississippi and Alabama; plantation finances; antebellum and postbellum Virginia politics; and economic development and race relations in the Reconstruction era. Considerable information appears on the deepening of the James River.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: In Series 2, there are papers concerning the treatment of plantation slaves (1829-1837), and slave bills of sale and jail receipts for runaways apprehended in other counties (1817-1829). In Series 3, there is correspondence about the management of slaves and hiring of overseers (1829-1839); and a female plantation owner’s fear of her slaves (n.d.; see Folder 45 and 56).

In Series 4.3, papers include items related to Asa Ruffin’s publication of several pamphlets, including “The Negro as a Social and Political Factor” and “The Cost and Outcome of Negro Education in Virginia” (1882-1892);

Democratic representative letters appear to Ruffin from C. M. Reynolds of Woodburne, who wrote on 8 September 1882, complaining that the “New South” had ruined Negro labor, and from J. L. Tucker of Mobile, Alabama, who wrote on 21 November 1883, giving his ten-page opinion on the Negro’s incapacity to govern himself and lack of mechanical ability.

In the undated folders at the end of this series, the collection also contains a handwritten copy of an extract from “The Negro as a Soldier” (n.d.).