Abstract: Benjamin Watkins Leigh was born in 1831 in Richmond, Va. Leigh practiced law until he enlisted as a captain in the Confederate army on 21 May 1861, receiving a commission in the 1st Batallion, Virginia Infantry Regiment. By June 1863, he had been transferred to the 42nd Virginia Infantry Regiment and promoted to full major. Leigh died in the Battle of Gettysburg on 3 July 1863. The collection consists of a highly detailed travel diary kept by Benjamin Watkins Leigh in April 1861 during a trip through the South, taken with his brother a month before Leigh enlisted in the Confederate Army. The brothers began their trip in Virginia and proceeded through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, before returning to Virginia through Mississippi and Tennessee. The diary contains lengthy, often block-by-block descriptions of the buildings and landmarks in the cities and towns Leigh visited, including Wilmington, N.C., Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga., Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans, La., among others. The diary details Leigh’s travel route, opinions on traveling by steamboat and rail, and observations on landscape and climate, as well as descriptions of meetings with family, friends, and other associates, including Abraham Minis and James Louis Petigru, as well as several encounters with slaves. Several entries mention local reaction to events in the Civil War, including the ratification of the Constitution of the Confederate States, the Battle of Fort Sumter, and the secession of Virginia from the Union.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Several of the entries contain descriptions of interactions with enslaved individuals.

Abstract: The Lewis family arrived in Raleigh, N.C., in 1923, when John D. Lewis Sr. took a job as a district manager for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company of Durham, N.C. He and his wife, Luella Alice Cox Lewis, and their two children, J.D. Lewis (John D. Lewis Jr.) (1919-2007) and Vera Lewis Embree (1921-2004), lived in southeast Raleigh and were members of First Baptist Church. J.D. Lewis was a Morehouse College graduate, one of the first African American members of the United States Marine Corps, and the first African American radio and television personality, corporate director of personnel, and director of minority affairs for WRAL of the Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC). J.D. Lewis also worked as the special markets representative for the Pepsi Cola Bottling Company; as the project director of GROW, Incorporated, a federally funded program for high school dropouts; and as the coordinator of manpower planning for the state of North Carolina. Lewis was active in many civic and community organizations as well. Vera Lewis Embree (1921-2004) graduated from the Palmer Institute for Young Women and Hampton Institute. She built a successful and celebrated career as a choreographer and professor of dance at the University of Michigan. The collection consists of papers, photographs, and audiovisual materials that chiefly relate to J.D. Lewis’s working life and the civic and community organizations he supported. Lewis’s career is documented by materials from Capitol Broadcasting Company, including editorials he wrote and produced; GROW, Incorporated; Manpower; Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company; National Association of Market Developers; and the National Business League. Lewis’s civic leadership is evident in records of the Raleigh Community Relations Committee, which worked to integrate Raleigh public schools; political campaigns; and the Team of Progress, a group interested in political leadership at the city and county levels of government. Community organizations represented in the collection include the Garner Road YMCA; Alpha Kappa Alpha Debutante Ball; the Eastside Neighborhood Task Force; the Citizens Committee on Schools; Omega Psi Phi; and Meadowbrook Country Club, which was founded in 1959 by a small group of African American community leaders. Other materials document the Method Post Office dedication in 1965; the Montford Point Marine Association; and a youth charrette, possibly on integration of Durham schools. There are also clippings and printed materials on such topics as black power, African American history, Morehouse College, and Shaw University. There are several issues of Perfect Home, a home design and decorating magazine published by John W. Winters, a real estate broker, home builder, city councilman, state senator, and civic leader. Family materials are mainly biographical and include newspaper clippings, funeral programs, school materials, awards and certificates, and photographs. There are a few family letters, including one from 1967 with a first-hand account of rioting on Twelfth Street in Detroit and a copy of a 10 January 1967 letter in which the Lewis family opposed the selection of Mark Twain’s Mississippi Melody for student performance on the grounds that it perpetuated stereotyped images of African Americans. Photographs include portraits and snapshots of four generations of the Lewis and related Cox families, documenting family life from the 1910s through the 2000s. There are non-family group portraits of Omega Psi Phi members of Durham, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company employees on its 21st anniversary, and of unidentified groups at other civic and community events. There is one folder of J.D. Lewis photographs that depict him in various work contexts. Also included is a portrait of a young Clarence Lightner, who owned a funeral home business and later served as the first African American mayor of Raleigh. Audiovisual materials chiefly relate to J.D. Lewis’s work at Capitol Broadcasting Company/WRAL and his interest in African American community and history. Included are audiotapes of his editorials for WRAL; videotape of Harambee, a public affairs program about the concerns of the general public and especially African Americans; audiotape of musical performances, possibly for Teen-Age Frolic, a teenage dance and variety show; audiotape of Adventures in Negro History, an event sponsored by Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Raleigh; and film of unidentified wedding and seashore scenes. Also included are several published educational film strips on African American history with accompanying audio.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Of particular note are the letters J.D. Lewis received from musicians and students desiring to appear on Teen-Age Frolic, the dance/variety show Lewis hosted on WRAL (Folder 140). There are also numerous editorials Lewis did during his years as a broadcaster, on a variety of topics (Folders 21-140). Additionally, there is corresponding audio for many of these transcripts (See Series 3).

Folder 16 also contains a 1967 letter with a first-hand account of the rioting in Detroit and a copy of a 10 January 1967 letter in which the Lewis family opposed the selection of Mark Twain’s Mississippi Melody for a school-wide student performance on the grounds “it will by no means further relationships in an integrated situation, where students as a whole, do not have a sufficient background or appreciation of Negro History to comprehend this as perhaps an exaggerrated situation of a particular and past era, but rather, would perpetuate an image already deeply established as stereotyped.”

There are also numerous photographs of the Lewis and Cox Family, including J.D. and Vera Lewis’s father during his time at Morehouse College. There are also photographs of J.D. Lewis on the set of Teen-Age Frolic, introducing different bands, and at different community events (Image folders 1-10).

Abstract: The Reverend Samuel Lander Sr. was born in Tipperary, Ireland, in 1792, the son of William Lander. He married Eliza Ann Miller (b. 1793) in 1812; the couple had at least four children. Lander, a Methodist minister and carriage maker, moved to Boston, Mass., in 1818 because of Catholic intolerance of Methodism in Ireland. The family first lived in Newark, N.J., before settling in Salisbury, N.C., where Lander became a United States citizen. He lived in Lincolnton, N.C., from 1828 until his death in 1865. The collection consists of two ledger books kept by Samuel Lander between 1838 and 1865. The books include records, often annotated with detailed information, of money received and expenditures for various household goods, his carriage making business, boarders, and land; records of deaths; and hours, terms of employment, agreements, and notes on various hired hands, apprentices, and slaves, some of whom may have been hired out by Lander’s son William. Notes on hands and apprentices include conditions of hire, reports of bad conduct, and discharges. The entry for 2 March 1847 records the sale of slaves.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The two ledgers contain information about the enslaved people belonging to Lander, as well as those that have been hired out. The entry for 2 March 1847 records the sale of enslaved individuals.

Abstract: Thomas Legare was a commission merchant in Charleston, S.C., in the 1760s and 1770s. The volume contains receipts written to Thomas Legare from various individuals whose crops and other goods and property (including slaves) Legare sold. Receipts also appear for services, including cooperage, carpentry work, shipping, and supplies (tar, turpentine, bricks, shingles, and other goods) that Legare purchased for his business and personal use. Signatures appearing most frequently are Henry Ballingal, G. Waddon Bone, Charles Elliott, Joseph Fabian, Thomas Farr, Isaac McPherson, Edward Perry, Joseph Shirving, Vardell & Wilkes, and Edward Wilkinson. Freight receipts often refer to shipments on the schooner “Liberty.”

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: One volume containing receipts written to Legare from various South Carolina planters whose crops and other goods Legare sold. Two receipts show that at times Legare sold slaves on commission (1768, 1770). The collection also contains one receipt signed by Abraham Jackson, a free black, for cash received upon Legare’s sale of five pounds of Jackson’s rice (1768).

Abstract: Francis Terry Leak was a cotton planter and businessman of Tippah (now Benton) County, Miss. Manuscript volumes containing entries of various types, most of which are presumed to have been written by Francis Terry Leak. With the exception of one volume consisting chiefly of work records of plantation hands, largely slaves, the greater portion of each volume contains Leak’s diary/plantation journal. Some entries contain brief references to the number of acres plowed and the weather on a given day, while others are substantive narrative passages about plantation, family, and community life, ranging from trips through the South that were undertaken by family or friends to the progress of the Civil War. Other sections of these volumes are devoted to records of miscellaneous accounts, including those relating to cotton shipped and sold, goods and services purchased from various sources, transactions involving the loaning or collecting of money, and other activities having to do with finances.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Diary of Leak, a Tippah (now Benton) County, Mississippi, planter consisting chiefly of the work records of plantation slaves (1841-1865). The collection also contains records of slave sales (1841-1865) and a description of a slave wedding, including the text of the ceremony (1856). Microfilm available.

Some of the materials in this collection have been digitized. Click here to link to the finding aid to access the digital items.

Abstract: Political activist Allard Kenneth Lowenstein (1929-1980) served as a lawyer, teacher, speaker, author, United States congressman from New York, United States representative to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and founder and leader of several organizations. Correspondence, organizational records, political campaign records, congressional files, writings, speeches, press clippings, research materials, scheduling files, financial and administrative records, diaries, scrapbooks, family papers, photographs, sound recordings, videocasette tapes, and other items documenting the life and career of Allard K. Lowenstein. Correspondence, 1940s-1970s, covers Lowenstein’s service in World War II; years as a student activist at the University of North Carolina; work with the United States National Student Association, Democratic Party, Coalition for a Democratic Alternative, and other organizations; relations with Eleanor Roosevelt, Frank Porter Graham, Adlai Stevenson, William F. Buckley Jr., Aaron Henry, Eugene J. McCarthy, Norman C. Thomas, and Hubert H. Humphrey; interests in political and social affairs including civil rights, voter registration, and political reform in the United States and relations with other countries, especially Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and the Soviet Union; work at Stanford University; anti-Vietnam War activities; the Ditch Johnson campaign; his successful campaign for Congress from the Fifth Congressional District of New York; various unsuccessful political campaigns for United States House and Senate seats from New York; his investigation of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination; his United Nations work; his work on Edward M. Kennedy’s 1980 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination; and other matters. Activity files, 1935-1980, document Lowenstein’s various United Nations appointments during the Carter Administration; attempts to reopen the investigation of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination; involvement in Americans for Democratic Action; attendance at the University of North Carolina; African travels; and other activities relating to civil rights, international relations, and other topics. Political campaign materials, 1942-1980, relate to campaigns of Lowenstein and others, chiefly Democrats. United States Congress materials, 19

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: The collection documents Lowenstein’s deep interest in issues of race, especially in the Civil Rights Movement. Materials documenting his activities and interests in civil rights include research notes from 1940-1968 (Series 6); speeches from 1951-1980 (Series 7.3); and interviews from between 1952-1980 (Subseries 10.2 ). The collection also contains manuscripts recording Lowenstein’s involvement in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from 1967-1980 (Subseries 2.18); Americans for Democratic Action from 1947- 1957 and 1966-1980 (Subseries 2.22); United States National Student Association from 1950-1967 (Folder 87 in Series 2.3 and also in Subseries 2.6); and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (1963- 1964; in Subseries 2.14). Included are papers relating to Lowenstein’s opposition to apartheid in South and Southwest Africa from 1954-1963 (Subseries 2.11 and 2.27).

Abstract: Head teacher at the Manual Labor School in Spring Hill, Tenn., and later president of Middlebury College, Vt. Letter from Labaree to James Gillespie Birney, Huntsville, Ala., discussing the Manual Labor School and the colonization of slaves; and notes made by Labaree’s grandson, Leonard, on Labaree’s meeting with Birney.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: A letter from Benjamin Labaree, head teacher at the Manual Labor School at Springhill, Tennessee, to James G. Birney of Huntsville, Alabama, discussing the school and mentioning the cause of colonization. There is also a note added by Labaree’s grandson, Leonard, on Labaree’s meeting with Birney, reformer, legislator, and agent of the American Colonization Society, who advocated abolition by political action. Typed transcript.

Abstract: Edward McCrady L’Engle (1834-1900) of Florida was a railroad president, lawyer, and Confederate army officer. L’Engle’s legal, business, political, and family correspondence, chiefly 1856-1897. Papers before 1866, a small part of the collection, relate to railroad development, plantation life and slavery, social conditions, and public opinion before and during the war in Florida. Antebellum papers include letters from other southeastern states and from an army officer on the Texas frontier and in the Oregon and Washington territories.Postwar papers chiefly concern the Florida Central Railroad, which was entangled in the Reconstruction manipulations of George William Swepson and general Milton Smith Littlefield. The postwar papers also relfect L’Engle’s legal practice, banking, and business activities in general, including relations with northern businessmen, and contain material on the political opinions of the conservative white element in Florida during Reconstruction. Correspondents include most of the antebellum, Confederate and Conservative leaders of the state, many of whom were L’Engle’s relatives or close friends, and a number of prominent persons from other southern states.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Papers dated before 1866 often pertain to plantation life and slavery and postwar papers contain materials reflecting the political opinions of the conservative white element in Florida towards Reconstruction. (See Folders 1-8).

Included are letters expressing the difficulty in acquiring slave labor in 1857 (Folder 4) and the fear of slave uprisings in Florida in 1865 (Folder 7).

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: Records of several plantations of the Lewis family of Hale and Marengo counties, Ala., chiefly those of Ivey Foreman Lewis. Plantations mentioned include: Hermitage Place, Gholson Place, Bleak House, Drake House, Ashe Place, Moss Grove, and Hardee Place. Volumes record work done, cotton picked, slave births and deaths, food and clothing issued, accounts with laborers, plantation expenses, inventories, and other items. Loose papers include contracts with freedmen, bills for medical care for laborers, accounts for other services and for merchandise purchased, and slight correspondence.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Records of several plantations of the Lewis family of Hale and Marengo Counties, Alabama, chiefly those of Ivey Foreman Lewis. The collection includes work contracts with freedmen (1874-1878) and records of slave births and deaths (1857-1860). Civil War letters also discuss moving slaves to the interior of the state to prevent their escape to the Union Army. Series 3 contains doctor’s bills for treating the enslaved. Undated slave documents are also located at the end of folder 22.

Abstract: C. Townsend Ludington received a B.A. from Yale University in 1957 and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University in 1964 and 1967 respectively. He began teaching English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1966. Among other work, Ludington wrote biographies of John Dos Passos and Marsden Hartley. Correspondence of Townsend Ludington, committee reports, and other materials relating to the development of an African-American studies curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1968-1969, in response to a list of 23 demands of the Black Student Movement (BSM) that were presented to Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson on 11 December 1968. Ludington served as a member of the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Committee on Afro-American and African Studies in 1969 and acted as chair of the American Studies Curriculum.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Correspondence of Townsend Ludington, committee reports, and other materials relating to the development of an African-American studies curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1968-1969, in response to a list of 23 demands of the Black Student Movement (BSM) that were presented to Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson on 11 December 1968. Ludington served as a member of the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Committee on Afro-American and African Studies in 1969.