Abstract: In 1974, the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., combined with the Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia (PDS) to form the Episcopal Divinity School, located in Cambridge, Mass. The collection contains letters, circa 1820-1960, of Episcopal bishops from North Carolina. Many were written to Edith Fuller, librarian of the Episcopal Theological School, in response to her request for autographed letters. Others were addressed to Bishop William Lawrence of Cambridge, Mass. There are also two 1924 letters and one 1925 letter by Henry Beard Delany of Raleigh, N.C., the first African American Episcopal bishop and father of Sadie and Bessie Delany, authors of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. The letters were written to his son, Hubert Delany, in New York; the 1925 letter describes a train trip taken by Henry Beard Delany through the North Carolina mountains.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Folder 3 contains two 1924 letters and one 1925 letter by Henry Beard Delany of Raleigh, N.C., the first African American Episcopal bishop and father of Sadie and Bessie Delany, authors of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. The letters were written to his son, Hubert Delany, in New York; the 1925 letter describes a train trip taken by Henry Beard Delany through the North Carolina mountains.

Abstract: The collection includes slave records and other papers relating to Henry Alderson Ellison, planter of Baldwin County, Ala., and his family, including a notebook (16 p.), containing lists of slaves belonging to Ellison in 1848 and 1858-1860 and records of their being hired out. Other papers include a letter, 30 October 1864, from Abram M. Allen, Washington, N.C., an Ellison slave who had been freed before the Civil War, to Eliza Tripp Ellison, Henry’s widow, at Wilson, N.C., where she had taken refuge during the Civil War, in which he informed her of his whereabouts and offered hope for the future. Also included is a letter, 16 October 1867, to Eliza, now living near Mobile, Ala., from Edward Stanly (1810-1872), California politician who had been U.S. representative from North Carolina, describing conditions in California and evaluating prospects there for southerners; and five invitations to social functions in Beaufort County, N.C., 1877-1880 and undated, sent to Ellison and Bonner family member.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The collection includes a 16-page notebook containing lists of slaves belonging to Ellison and records of their hire to other planters (1848, 1858-1860). The collection also contains a letter from Abram M. Allen, an Ellison slave freed before the Civil War, in which Allen advises his former owners of his whereabouts and offers hope for the future (1864). Allen was a bricklayer who was emancipated in 1816 by Donum Montford, who was also an emancipated bricklayer. Microfilm available.

Abstract: Miscellaneous papers, chiefly bills, receipts, deeds, court proceedings, wills, estate settlements (including the division of slaves), and other legal and business papers of Edenton and Chowan County, N.C., citizens, mainly before 1820. There are few letters. Several items concern the awarding of prizes by the Admiralty Court during the Revolution. Persons represented in the collection include: Nathaniel Allen, William Badham, John Barefield, Thomas Barker, Nehemiah Bateman, John Beasley, Thomas Benbury, William Blair, Charles Blount, Joseph Blount, William Branch, Stephen Cabarrus, William Cathcart, Josiah Collins, James Craven, Samuel Dickinson, Charles Eden, Henry Eelbeck, Montfort Eelbeck, William Eelbeck, William Hill, John Hodgson, Samuel Hodgson, Thomas Holland, Arthur Johnston, Samuel Johnston, Peter Malbone, Jeremiah Michener, Elisha Norfleet, Samuel Pagett, John Palin, Thomas Parris, and Thomas Pollock.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: There are several references to divisions of enslaved African Americans in 1751, 1752, 1753,1807, and in as well as the hire of 1816. (See Folders 2, 7, and 8).

There are two deeds, one for an enslaved African American man and another for an enslaved African American girl, from 1768 and 1789.(See Folders 3 and 5).

There is also a letter, dated 18 November 1839, from William Snowden to his brother, discussing various topics including how enslaved people are treated (See Folder 12).

Oversize papers contain an 13 April 1752 account of the division of enslaved African Americans on the estate of John Hodgson.

Some materials from this collection have been digitized and are available online. Click here to link to the finding aid for this collection and to access the digital material.

Abstract: Roswell Elmer was the editor of the North Carolina Spectator and Western Advertiser, a weekly newspaper published in Rutherfordton, N.C., 1830-1835 or 1836. He moved to Rutherforton from Virginia in 1829. Manuscript diary, 178 p., kept by Elmer, 29 August 1829-7 February 1830, with almost daily entries varying in length from a few sentences to several pages. The diary begins on 29 August 1829 when Elmer left Charlottesville, Va., for Salisbury, N.C., where he hoped to earn a living gold mining. Diary entries document his frustrated mining efforts in the Morganton-Lincolnton-Rutherfordton area, near Salisbury, and his successful work recruiting subscribers to support a newspaper and printing office in Rutherfordton, which began operation 1 February 1830. Most early diary entries contain extensive descriptions of the lands he passed through and conversations he had with fellow travellers on the journey from Charlottesville. Entries written after his journey ended document his integration into town life.These include descriptions of hunting trips; excursions, often in the company of young ladies, to waterfalls and other scenic places; parties he attended; and activities in various towns where traveling courts were in session. He also described his service with the local militia, which seems to have consisted chiefly of his forgetting to attend drills. He also wrote of specific occurrences, including his meeting, on 25 November 1829, a group of slaves en route to Alabama where they were to be sold; on 27 November, the general disappointment in Rutherfordton when a slave, convicted of an unnamed crime, was ordered out of the area rather than hanged; and, on 9 December, a case of spouse abuse in which both husband and wife were alcoholics.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Diary entries include a description of Elmer’s meeting of a group of slaves en route to Alabama where they were to be sold (1829), and of the general disappointment in Rutherfordton when a slave, convicted of an unspecified crime, was exiled from the town rather than hanged (1829).

Abstract: Volume with three parts: a merchandise ledger, 1804-1806; church records, 1815-1853 and 1863; and commonplace entries, undated. The bulk of the volume consists of the records of Edenton Methodist Episcopal Church, including minutes of quarterly, steward, and other meetings; records of membership, births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths; lists of ministers and other officials; and a running history of the church, whose membership apparently included whites and both slaves and free blacks. Church officials mentioned included Enoch Jones and Bernard Overton.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The record book of the church includes a history of the church, which includes discussion of enslaved and free black members. Microfilm only.

Abstract: Clement Eaton, born in Winston-Salem, N.C., 23 Febraury 1898, was educated at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University. Eaton was chair of the History Department at Lafayette College, 1931-1942, when he became a member of the faculty of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. Eaton was the prolific author of books and articles about the history of the American South. Recollections of his childhood and youth in Winston-Salem, N.C., written by Eaton in 1976 for publication in the Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel. Topics include Eaton’s relations with African Americans; life in the city; visits of the circus and other amusements; personalities, including Clement Manly and Charles M. Stedman; and public school education focusing on his teachers.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Topics in the recollections include Eaton’s relations with African Americans.

Abstract: The collection includes an intermittent diary of Miss Elmore of Columbia, S.C., containing primarily personal and introspective entries except for a detailed account of life and events in the city, September 1864-January 1865, during Union army occupation. Also, small notebooks containing drafts of a novel and other literary materials.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Volumes 1, 3, and 4 all contain discussions of slaves on the family property, and Grace Elmore’s thoughts on slavery and freedom. Of particular note in Volume 4 are descriptions of family slaves telling Brer Rabbit and Ole Harry Scratch stories and other “negro tales.” Also included is a narrative purported to be by her brother Albert’s former slave Billy about his Civil War experiences, entitled “Billy’s Account of Himself,” and Grace B. Elmore’s description of Billy’s visit to the Elmore home in 1890.

Abstract: The Edmiston, Flowers, and Kelley families, primarily of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, are related through the marriages of William Kelley (1844-1897) to Mary Seraphina Flowers Kelley (1844-1937), and their daughter, Olive Kelley Edmiston (1887-1979), to Paul C. Edmiston Sr. (1881-1927). William Kelley was a physician in Tallulah, La., in the 1880s and 1890s. The papers consist primarily of family correspondence and genealogical materials, chiefly from Mississippi and Louisiana, gathered by Edmiston family members. Correspondence chiefly consists of letters between Saraphina Brooks Flowers of Bovina, Miss., and her daughter, Mary Saraphina Flowers Kelley, 1867-1868; letters between William Kelley of Tallulah, La., and his wife, Mary Saraphina Flowers Kelley, 1878-1897; telegrams sent to William Kelley regarding yellow fever cases in Louisiana, 1880s-1890s; and letters between Olive Kelley Edmiston and her mother, Mary Saraphina Flowers Kelley, 1900-1915. Some letters are from girls in school in Mississippi or Louisiana in the mid-19th century and early 20th century; others relate to African Americans in 19th-century Louisiana. Also included is a 1864 letter from Saraphina Brooks Flowers regarding her visit to the Union Army prison in Rock Island, Ill., where her son, a soldier serving with a Mississippi regiment, was a prisoner; an autograph album of William Kelley containing signatures of friends and acquaintances; naval records and other papers of Paul C. Edmiston Jr. serving as a naval radio officer, 1940s-1950s; photographs of various Edmiston and Flowers family members, 1850s-1950s; and a photograph album belonging to Olive Kelley Edmiston, circa 1900-1910, with some images of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis, Mo. Genealogical materials include notes, prepared works, and a compact data disc documenting the lineage of the Edmiston, Kelley, and Flowers families.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Letters from William Kelley between 1870 and 1898 discuss various topics including including his fear of African-American riots and the mass emigration of African Americans from Louisiana to Kansas (See Folders 2-4)

Abstract: Four diary volumes and a record of military hospital supplies of Harriet Eaton of Portland, Me. One diary volume covers the period 5 December 1853 – 27 May 1854; in it Eaton describes her sea voyage from Portland to Mobile, Ala., experiences in Mobile and environs, including a church service for slaves, and her return trip overland. The other diary volumes, 1862-1864, constitute a detailed record of Eaton’s observations and feelings as a U.S. Army nurse visiting camps in Virginia, leaving supplies, and aiding the sick and wounded. The final volume is an undated record of hospital supplies distributed to many different Maine regiments.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The majority of the collection consists of Eaton’s observations and opinions as an Army nurse visiting camps in Virginia, leaving supplies, and aiding the sick and the wounded. One early entry describes a church service for slaves in Mobile, Alabama (1853-1854). Microfilm available.

Abstract: Samuel James Ervin was an eminent North Carolina lawyer, jurist, legislator, congressman, and United States Senator, 1954-1974. Ervin chaired the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (the Watergate Committee), 1973-1974. The Senate Records Subgroup covers Ervin’s twenty-year career in the United States Senate. Significant series include: Series I, Correspondence, consisting chiefly of letters exchanged by Ervin and his constituents, colleagues, dignitaries, and various federal officials. Recurring subjects include agriculture, the state and federal budgets, civil rights, commerce, education, foreign affairs, foreign aid, labor, railroads, social security, veterans, the Vietnam conflict, and the Watergate controversy; Series 2, Subject Files, containing printed materials, correspondence, and miscellaneous items on topics such as agriculture, crime, defense, education, energy, foreign relations, labor, the national economy, the North Carolina economy, taxes, textiles, and Watergate; and Series 4, Political Campaign Files, including correspondence, names of potential supporters, and financial records documenting Ervin’s successful senatorial campaigns. Other significant groups include: Series 8, audio discs and partial transcripts of Ervin’s weekly radio program; Series 13, Military Files (RESTRICTED), consisting primarily of correspondence regarding assistance with military matters, including letters from servicemen and their families concerning discharges, transfers of assignment, combat duty, and medical treatment of veterans; Series 14, Prisoners Files (RESTRICTED), consisting of correspondence with prisoners in North Carolina prisons and prisoners with North Carolina connections serving time in federal prisons, concerning parole, transfers, medical treatment, appeals, and prison conditions; and Series 15, containing audio-visual materials including films and video tapes of interviews conducted in conjunction with the PBS documentary, “Senator Sam.” Series 16 contains volumes of printed transcriptions of Congressional hearings and a few items relating to Ervin’s law and Senate careers.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Ervin opposed civil rights legislation for African Americans as a violation of the Constitution. Series 2 of his Senate files contains six boxes of materials pertaining to civil rights. In Series 1.13.2. (Legislative Correspondence Files, 1966), there are also numerous documents regarding Ervin’s work on the Judiciary Committee regarding Civil Rights.