Creator: Norton, Chilton, and Dameron family papers, 1760-1926, 1995 (bulk 1815-1910).
Collection number: 3264
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Abstract: Members of the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families were planters of Louisiana and Mississippi. The collection includes chiefly letters, 1815-1910, relating to members of the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families. Topics include farming, activities of relatives and friends, business matters, and household routine. Antebellum letters are chiefly between Norton family members in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, and Mississippi, especially in Vicksburg, about farming and family matters. Letters written during the Civil War are chiefly from William H. Dameron at the Confederate Commissary Department at Meridian, Miss., to his wife, Courtenay Norton Dameron, in New Orleans, mostly about family matters, but with references to commissary work. While most post-Civil War letters are about family matters, a few discuss the 1875 race riots relating to elections in Clinton, Miss., and some discuss spiritualism, especially Sarah Norton Chilton’s attempts in the mid-1870s to contact dead relatives and friends. Other papers include financial and legal documents, including a few records of slave sales in Mississippi; clippings; cures and remedies; genealogical data, including information about the Cusachs family as well as the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families; notebooks; and family pictures.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Topics include the 1875 race riots in Clinton, Mississippi, instigated by local elections (Folder 11). Also included is a clipping of an account of the race riot (Folder 24) and slave bills of sale for individuals sold in Clinton between 1842-1854 (Folder 18). Volume 2 (Folder 32) contains references to enslaved individuals.
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