Creator: Singleton family.
Collection number: 668
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Abstract: The Singletons were cotton planters living near Sumter, S.C. Prominent family members include Richard Singleton (1776-1852), John Singleton (1754-1820), and Matthew R. Singleton (1817-1854). The collection includes correspondence, financial, legal, and other papers document the business affairs and, to a lesser extent, the personal lives of the Singleton family. The bulk of the papers belonged to Richard Singleton and date from 1815-1854. Correspondence consists primarily of business letters that document the trends of the cotton market in Charleston, S.C., and Liverpool, England, and reveal the working relationship of planter and commission merchant. Financial papers reveal the amounts and prices of cotton and other crops sold and indicate the expenses of a plantation family. Other topics documented in the collection include slavery in South Carolina and Alabama; a plantation near Claiborne, Ala.; horse breeding; and mental illness.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Correspondence covers various topics including purchase and sale of slaves and runaway slaves primarily between 1791, 1801-1820, 1821-1822 (Folders 1-43).
Financial papers contain accounts, bills, receipts and tax returns that document slavery including the purchase, hire, and medical treatment of slaves between 1787-1852.
Also included in the collection are bills of William Ellison, a free black craftsman, for repairing saw gins between 1820-1831 (Folder 186-197). There are also bills from Ellison in Series Series 2.1.3. and Series 2.2.1.
There is also a bill and receipt for the capture and holding of a runaway slave in 14 March 1827 (Folders 255-257); an advertisement for the sale of slaves in Sumter 10 March 1838 (Folder 271); a slave list from 1849 (Folder 284-285); a slave pass from 12 November 1820 for an enslaved man Jesse (Folder 314); an agreement to purchase a factory and slaves who worked it in1843; a petition to send slaves to work on roads 1845; and a document on slaves charged with murder of an overseer in 1843 (Folder 317)
Is there any reference here (dating most likely to 1842-45) to an officer, Lieutenant Edward J. Steptoe of the Lynchburg, VA, vicinity? They’d likely have met, per one of EJ’s letters, at Red Sweet Springs, VA?