Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Boykin Family Papers #78, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Gifts of Mrs. Burwell H. Boykin and May Boykin of Boykin, South Carolina, before 1940; with additions in February 1944 and January 1952 from May Boykin and Mary Boykin Haile of Boykin, South Carolina, and Mrs. Morris Boykin of Pelham, New York, and from Anthony T. Lathrop of Charlotte, N.C., in March 2002 (Acc. 99191).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, November 2009

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Boykin family.
• Boykin, Alexander Hamilton, 1815-1866.
• Boykin, Alexander Hamilton, 1846-1923.
• Boykin, Sarah Jones DeSaussure, fl. 1835-1866.
• Camden (S.C.)--History--19th century.
• Commission merchants--South Carolina--Charleston.
• Confederate States of America. Army. Boykin's Rangers.
• Confederate States of America. Army. South Carolina Cavalry Regiment, 2nd.
• Cotton trade--South Carolina.
• DeSaussure family.
• Plane Hill Plantation (Camden, S.C.).
• Plantations--South Carolina.
• Reeder & DeSaussure (Charleston, S.C.).
• Slavery--South Carolina.
• South Carolina--Economic conditions.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

Alexander Hamilton Boykin (1815?1866) was the son of Burwell Boykin (1752-1817) and Mary Whitaker. Educated initially in Camden, he entered South Carolina College as a sophomore in 1832, but left the following year without receiving a degree. He became a successful planter in Kershaw and Sumter districts where he possessed 5,737 acres at his death. His residential plantation, which he purchased in December 1835, was Plane Hill near Camden. Other of Boykin's holdings included Hillyard, Carter Hill (700 acres), Millway, Pine Grove, and the Mill plantations on Swift Creek; Boykin's Mill in Sumter District; and tracts on the Wateree River. According to the 1860 federal census, his real and personal estates were valued at $55,000 and $241,000 respectively; the slave schedules for that year listed 189 slaves in Kershaw and 58 slaves in Sumter as his property.

Elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives, Hamilton Boykin represented Kershaw in 1846-1849 and 1852-1859. After Kershaw chose him for the state Senate in a special election, he resigned his seat in the House and qualified on 28 November 1859 for the Forty-third General Assembly. Subsequently, Boykin represented Kershaw in the Senate, 1860-1864. Locally, he was a member of the Wateree Agricultural Society, ca. 1841; director of the South Carolina Railroad Company, 1849; and a communicant at Grace Episcopal Church of Camden.

During the Civil War, Hamilton Boykin organized and financed Boykin's Rangers, which became Company A of the Second South Carolina Cavalry. As captain, he served from 26 June 1861 until 1 October 1862 when poor health forced him to resign. He engaged the enemy at the First Battle of Bull Run, 21 July 1861, and at Williamsburg, May 1862. Appointed judge advocate in December 1862 by Confederate president Jefferson Davis, he declined to serve, citing his lack of legal experience. Toward the close of the war, he expressed a strong dislike of Davis and his policies.

On 22 November 1835, Boykin married Sarah Jones DeSaussure, daughter of William Ford DeSaussure (b. 1792) and Sarah Davie. Nine children were born to them: William DeSaussure (1841-1858); Mary Whitaker (m. Edward Brevard Cantey); Alexander Hamilton, Jr. (1846-1923); Elizabeth Gabriella (m. Brown Manning); Burwell Henry; Elias Miller; Allen Jones; William DeSaussure (1852-1902); and Lemuel Whitaker. Survived by his wife and eight children, Alexander Hamilton Boykin died 8 March 1866 in Charleston and was buried in the Quaker Cemetery in Camden.

Source: Reynolds, Emily B. and Jean Reynolds Faunt, eds., Biographical Directory of the Senate of the State of South Carolina, 1776-1986. Columbia, S.C.: South Carolina Archives Department, 1986.

This collection chiefly consists of business papers, but also includes some personal correspondence and military papers of Alexander Hamilton Boykin. There are also papers of Boykin's wife. After 1865, the papers are mainly those of Alexander Hamilton Boykin, Jr. There is also personal correspondence among other members of the Boykin and DeSaussure families.

The papers are mostly business correspondence from Reeder & DeSaussure, Charleston cotton factors; accounts; bills of sale for land and slaves; legal agreements; and personal and family letters. The papers for 1861-1862 are military papers of Captain A. H. Boykin, leader of Boykin's Rangers, a company of South Carolina mounted rangers, detailing the activities of the company in Richmond, Flint Hill, and Manassas, Virginia, during campaigns of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia. Items relating to Boykin family genealogy are also included.

Oversize papers (OP-78/1-6 in OPF-78/1).