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: Members of the Harris and Foust families lived in Orange, Alamance, Chatham, Guilford, and Randolph counties, N.C. Thomas West Harris was graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1859. During the Civil War, he served in the 5th North Carolina Cavalry Regiment, after which he studied medicine in Paris and New York and then opened medical practices, first in eastern North Carolina, then in Chatham County, and later in Chapel Hill. He also served as the first dean and professor of anatomy, 1879-1885, of the University of North Carolina’s medical school. He married Sallie Maria Foust in 1865, and with her had five children, including Elizabeth who married Thomas R. Foust, superintendent of Guilford County schools, 1904-1941. The collection consists of correspondence, other papers, and photographs chiefly documenting the Harris and Foust families. Antebellum correspondence is largely between Isaac Holt Foust and daughter Sallie Maria Foust about routine matters and offering fatherly advice to Sallie at school. Post Civil War letters report daily happenings among Foust and Harris family members and include information about student life at the University of North Carolina. Some antebellum letters mention slaves, including buying and selling; after the war, some letters discuss African Americans. There is also a series of love letters exchanged by Thomas West Harris and Sallie Maria Foust Harris while he studied medicine in Paris and New York. Other papers (some photocopies and digital surrogates of materials not included in this collection) provide information about members of the Harris, Foust, Holt, and Steele families. Original documents include school materials from the 1850s; receipts from Paris; the Harris’s 1865 marriage license and related papers; an 1874 estate inventory; a scrapbook documenting the family history and career of Thomas R. Foust; and postcards and genealogical correspondence. Copied materials include letters with descriptions of camp life at Fort Fisher and Camp Lee; slave sales; mountain living near Asheville; attempted horse thievery by soldiers returning home in spring 1865; raising a regiment of black soldiers; and an 1899 Civil War reminiscence. Other copied materials concern Thomas West Harris’s military service and medical career and Reverend Robert J. Graves, a Presbyterian minister who was accused of spying for the Union. Also included are photocopies of cartes de visite, chiefly of Confederate generals and other public figures, and photographs, including daguerreotypes, tintypes, and cartes de visite, of Foust and Harris family members.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Some antebellum letters mention slaves, including buying and selling; after the war, some letters discuss African Americans.

An 1856 letter from Nancy Harris describes the accidental death of a female slave (Folder 2). In February 1859, Isaac Holt Foust wrote two letters in which he mentioned the death of a slave and the subsequent decision to adjust his workforce through buying and selling slaves (Folder 2).

In a 4 September 1865 letter, Thomas West Harris mentioned the possibility of relocating to northwest Texas, in part to be “removed from the intolerable presence of the negros,” but at the same time he feared that “Indians and the Jay hawkers seem to have things too much their own way out there just now.” (Folder 2). In a A 20 December 1866 letter, Sallie Maria Foust Harris described how her mother, Maria Foust, assisted with the birth of a baby by an African American woman (Folder 3).

Abstract: James A. Hutchins Jr., an alumnus of the University of North Carolina, grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C. He came to Chapel Hill on a scholarship to play tennis, but wound up playing football instead, becoming a star fullback for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. In 1939, he accepted his first job with the United States Department of Agriculture. Hutchins served in the United States Navy during World War II, after which he returned to the Department of Agriculture. At the Department of Agriculture, Hutchins worked against rural and urban hunger and helped create one of the nation’s first school lunch programs. He also served as the chief of the Department of Agriculture’s Direct Distribution Branch, where he coordinated programs in 84 countries, and as the head of the federal government’s Commodity Credit Corporation, where he helped stabilize and protect domestic prices and farm income. Hutchins married Marguerite Hutchins in 1940; the couple had three children: Julia, Alex, and Glenn. The collection contains a scrapbook and other materials chiefly chronicling the college football and United States Navy career of James A. Hutchins. Included are photographs, letters, ticket stubs, game programs, and clippings relating to the University of North Carolina football seasons, 1934-1936; photographs and other materials from Hutchins’s time in the United States Navy; and other items, some of which relate to pre-flight schools established in the 1940s, including the one at the University of North Carolina.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: In the scrapbook (Oversize Volume SV-5439/1), there are several clippings about a game during the 1936 season between the University of North Carolina and New York University that created controversy because New York University had an African American student in its starting line-up.

Abstract: Contracts, 1879-1883, of J. B. Heyward, Colleton County, S.C., planter with tenants; bills and receipts of his son, Robert Barnwell Heyward, 1886-1893; and plantation currency (3 paper tickets and 2 coins), presumably used by Heyward tenants.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: There is a deed from 5 December 1854 for 2500 acres and 27 slaves in St. Bartholomew Parish, S.C.

Abstract: Civil War letters received by the Howard family of Texas from sons serving with a Texas brigade in Virginia; letters, 1911-1917, received by the Priestly family of Louisiana from Graham Priestly of New Orleans, a former slave; and miscellaneous other items.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights:  Includes letters (1911- 1917) received by the Priestly family of Louisiana from former slave Graham Priestly of New Orleans.

Abstract: James Robert Hamilton was District Court judge of Travis and Williamson counties, Tex.; Democratic Party executive committee chair; and congressional candidate in 1926. Scattered papers, correspondence, and other items of James Robert Hamilton, principally relating to his political and legal career, especially his charges to grand juries to investigate the Ku Klux Klan, 1921-1922; bootleggers; and deserters of children. It includes two scrapbooks of clippings, 1881-1916 and 1921-1927, concerning his public life.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Materials chiefly relate to Hamilton’s political affairs and legal career, especially his charges to the grand juries of Travis and Williamson Counties concerning investigations of the Ku Klux Klan (1921-1922). Documents relating to this matter include a typescript of Hamilton’s charge to the grand jury (1921); a typed report from the grand jury to the judge concerning a specific case of Klan violence (1921); and letters received by Hamilton following his charge (1921-1922). The collection also includes an undated anti-Klan poem and a postcard of a gathering of approximately 1,000 Ku Klux Klansmen and onlookers with the caption “Initiation — Dec. 8th, 1921 — Houston Tex. Photo by A. Kluker.” Microfilm available.

Abstract: John W. Hatch began teaching at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health in 1971 and retired from UNC-CH as Kenan Professor of Health Education in 1995. Papers of John W. Hatch, documenting his involvement in health education issues in the United States and throughout the world. The collection reflects Hatch’s interest in improving health care for underserved populations, including African-Americans. Domestically, the papers document, among other projects, Hatch’s work with the Delta Health Center, a nonprofit health organization located in Mound Bayou, Miss., and the Community Health Education and Resources Utilization Project (Black Churches Project), an effort to train lay people to be health resources in their local communities.There is also material relating to sickle cell anemia research. International health projects covered include the UNC-CH School of Public Health’s Practical Training in Health Education project in Cameroon, Hatch’s work on the World Council of Churches’ Christian Medical Commission, and Hatch’s travels to South Africa under the aegis of the Progressive Primary Health Care Network.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The collection reflects Hatch’s interest in improving health care for underserved populations, including African-Americans. Main focuses include Hatch’s work with the Delta Health Center, a nonprofit health organization located in Mound Bayou, Miss., and the Community Health Education and Resources Utilization Project (Black Churches Project), an effort to train lay people to be health resources in their local communities (See particularly Subseries 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3). There is also material relating to sickle cell anemia research (See Subseries 2.7)

Series 1 contains several articles relating to the African American church and their role in promoting health care in the community.

Abstract: Items on microfilm are correspondence and other papers, 1827- 1866, of the Huguenin, Johnston, and related families of Early and Sumter counties, Ga. The Huguenin material relates to family news, plantation affairs, the cotton business, and hiring free labor after the Civil War. A plantation journal, 1836-1862, from the Huguenin plantation in Early County includes slave lists and detailed instructions to overseers. Johnston family material, 1862-1865, focuses on Civil War events. Most of the letters are to and from J. M. Johnston, stationed in Tennessee. Troop provisions, Johnston’s appointments as commissary officer and to the rank of captain, and his parole after being taken prisoner-of-war are the main topics included. Other correspondence describes a battle in Macon, Ga. The second series consists of nine letters, 1868-1877 and undated, chiefly between Joseph Marshall Johnston (1837-1905) and his wife, Martha “Mattie” Fannin Huguenin Johnston (1848-1934). The couple resided in Athens, Ga. The letters chiefly discuss family life, but also include several poems and an item, 1868, signed “Grand Cyclops, K.K.K.” Also included is an album containing photographs and prints of Confederate leaders.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights:The Huguenin material relates to plantation management and hiring of free labor after the Civil War. A plantation journal from the Huguenin plantation (1836- 1862) includes slave lists and detailed instructions to overseers. There is also a poem from 1868 signed “Grand Cyclops, K.K.K.”  [Note: some items are on microfilm].

Some of the materials in this collection have been digitized and are available online. Click here to link to the finding aid for this collection and to access the digitized content.

Abstract: Farm journals of David Golightly Harris of Spartanburg County, S.C., with detailed accounts of daily farm work, including the management of slaves, and discussion of the Civil War and Reconstruction. While Harris was away serving in the Confederate Army entries were written by his wife.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Farm journals of Harris discussing the management of slaves on his Spartanburg County, South Carolina, farm (1855-1864). Microfilm only.

Abstract: Luther Hartwell Hodges began his career as an executive for Marshall Field & Comapny, 1919-1950. He was later consultant to the Economic Cooperation Administration, 1950-1951; lieutenant governor, 1953- 1954, and governor, 1956-1960, of North Carolina; United Sates Secretary of Commerce, 1961-1965; head of the Research Triangle Foundation, 1966-1972; and president of Rotary International, 1967-1968. Correspondence, subject files, political files, speeches and other writings, scrapbooks, and other private papers and audiovisual materials of Luther H. Hodges. Much of the material concerns Hodges’s years with Marshall Field & Comapny, 1919-1950; his work with Rotary International, 1930-1972; and his chairmanship of Research Triangle Foundation, 1966-1972. Also included are some letters about the Economic Cooperation Administration in post-World War II Germany; a small amount of family correspondence; political speeches Hodges made as governor and Secretary of Commerce; books by and about Hodges; scrapbooks of clippings about Hodges’s political career and about school desegregation in Little Rock, Ark., as well as in North Carolina; materials relating to a study of the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees; and trip reports to friends and family from many trips overseas, including trips to Asia and Africa.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Series 2.7 (General Subject Files) contains various folders related to school desegregation and historically black colleges and universities in the area (See Folders 1774, 1815, 1816-1817).

Some copies of speeches in Series 4.2 also deal with Civil Rights and school desegregation as well.

Subseries 4.3 contains various reports about Hodges’s travel, including Africa, where he noted observations about various African nations after independence.

Scrapbooks in Subseries 5.1 contain several clippings, papers, and letters regarding desegregation in North Carolina and Arkansas from 1954-1961 and  1957-1958 (See Volumes S-72 to S-81).

Subseries 5.3 also contains letters, telegrams, clippings, and political pamphlets sent to Governor Hodges in the wake of Governor Orval Faubus’s summoning of the National Guard troops to prevent the integration of Central High School in Little Rock.