This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
Size | 83 items |
Abstract | The white Crenshaw and Miller families owned tobacco plantations and enslaved people in Hanover, Pittsylvania, and Halifax counties Virginia and Calhoun County, Texas. The collection contains scattered documents, including bills of sale, contracts, wills, tax receipts, and a broadside, that document the people enslaved and trafficked by the Crenshaws and Millers, insurrections by enslaved people in Virginia and North Carolina circa 1810, the manumission of enslaved people the early 1800s, a Christmas celebration by a community of enslaved people in Hanover County in 1812, and contracting work with freed people in 1865. The bulk of the collection is legal and estate papers, primarily of Nathaniel Crenshaw, Charles Crenshaw Jr., Sarah Bacon Crenshaw, and William Miller, including correspondence, deeds, wills, bonds, writs of summons, contracts, land plats, court orders, articles of agreement among other items. |
Creator | Crenshaw family.
Miller family. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Jill Snider, July 1991
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, December 2009
This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
Back to TopThe 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.
Charles and Sarah Crenshaw, their daughter Agnes, and her husband, William Miller, and their descendants lived on various plantations in Hanover, Pittsylvania, and Halifax counties, Va. They appear to have been plantation owners, enslavers, and chiefly tobacco growers.
Charles Crenshaw (fl. 1775-1794) married Sarah Bacon (d. 1818) and lived in Hanover County. Charles and Sarah had six children: Susanna (fl. 1790-1818), who never married; Agnes (d. 185?), who married William Miller of Halifax County; Temperance (d. 180?), who married William Rice; Nathaniel Crenshaw (d. 1818), who served as a major in the Virginia militia and lived on a plantation left him by his father in Pittsylvania County; John (fl. 1801); and Charles, Jr. (d. 1825). Charles and Sarah had at least eight grandchildren, including John Rice Miller and Nathaniel C. Miller (1816-1888), both children of Agnes and William Miller; Sarah B. Rice (m. Walter Crew), Samuel B. Rice, Mary B. Rice (m. Samuel P. Hargrave), and Izard Bacon Rice, all children of Temperance and William Rice; and Nathaniel C. Crenshaw (fl. 1812-1831) and Edmund B. Crenshaw (fl. 1826), brothers who probably were the children of John Crenshaw.
William Miller also had another son, George Y. M. Miller (fl. 1826-1863), by a previous marriage. Agnes and William's son, Nathaniel C. Miller, remained a bachelor, as did their grandson, Charles Edwin Miller (1839-1906). Nathaniel C. Miller left his Pittsylvania County estate, Sharswood, to Charles Edwin Miller.
There are other family members whose relationship to those noted above is unclear. They include: Charles Edwin Miller (d. 1851?); William B. Miller of Calhoun County, Tex., (fl. 185?); Crenshaw Miller (fl. 1826); and Charles Grenshaw Gent, possibly an uncle or other relation of Charles Crenshaw.
Several individuals served as executors of wills for family members. John Crenshaw was the executor for the estate of his father, Charles Crenshaw; Charles Crenshaw Jr. was executor for the estate of his mother, Sarah Bacon Crenshaw, and for the estate of his brother, Major Nathaniel Crenshaw; and William Miller was executor for the estate of Charles Crenshaw Jr.
Back to TopThe white Crenshaw and Miller families owned tobacco plantations and enslaved people in Hanover, Pittsylvania, and Halifax counties Virginia and Calhoun County, Texas. The collection contains scattered documents, including bills of sale, contracts, wills, tax receipts, and a broadside, that document the people enslaved and trafficked by the Crenshaws and Millers, insurrections by enslaved people in Virginia and North Carolina circa 1810, the manumission of enslaved people in the early 1800s, a disagreement between Charles Crenshaw Jr. and Chiswell Dabney over an extended Christmas celebration in an enslaved community in Hanover County in 1812, and contracting work with freed people in 1865. The bulk of the collection is legal and estate papers, primarily of Nathaniel Crenshaw, Charles Crenshaw Jr., Sarah Bacon Crenshaw, and William Miller, including correspondence, deeds, wills, bonds, writs of summons, contracts, land plats, court orders, and articles of agreement. The legal and public affairs of the Crenshaw family are best documented between 1751 and 1839, especially the estates of Major Nathaniel Crenshaw of Pittsylvania County and Charles Crenshaw Jr. of Hanover County. All the papers after that date pertain to their Miller relatives. Almost no details of family life emerge in the documents.
Back to TopExtra Oversize Paper Folder XOPF-00192/1 |
Oversize papers, 1766-1859Materials relating to slavery include:
Other papers include a deed for land granted by Joseph Eckhols Sr. of Halifax County, Va., to his son Joseph Eckhols J; a deed for land sold to Charles Grenshaw Gent by the Commonwealth of Virginia; a plat for Sharswood, a land tract for the Crenshaw-Miller estate near Mount Airy in Pittsylvania County, Va.; a survey by Richard Parker for Nathaniel C. Miller; and a printed letter, from state legislators Thomas H. Wooding and Daniel Coleman to their constituents, regarding legislative acts passed. |
Folder 1 |
Papers, 1751-1794Materials relating to slavery include:
Other papers include plats and deeds for tracts of land in Pittsylvania and Halifax counties, bonds, indentures, and other legal items. |
Folder 2 |
Papers, 1800-1819Materials relating to slavery include:
Other materials include copies of Sarah Bacon Crenshaw's wills, 1803, 1808(2), and 12 January 1818; a printed notice about a stolen horse; and printed messages from Matthew Clay, member of Congress, to constituents reporting on acts passed in the Virginia legislature. |
Folder 3 |
Papers, 1820-1839Materials relating to slavery include:
Other materials include estate papers of Nathaniel Crenshaw and his brother and Charles Crenshaw Jr., an accounting sheet for William Miller with William T. Smith, and legal papers of William Miller, including correspondence, deeds, indentures, writs of summons, land plats, articles of agreement, and court orders and certifications. |
Folder 4 |
Papers, 1851-1916Materials relating to slavery and Reconstruction include:
Other papers include deeds and correspondence of the Miller family of Halifax and Pittsylvania counties, Va., and Calhoun County, Tex., including William Miller; his sons George M. Y. Miller and Nathaniel C. Miller; his grandson, Charles Edwin Miller; and other family members, including Charles E. Miller (d. 1851?), William B. Miller (active 1851) of Texas, and Crenshaw Miller (active 1826). |
Folder 5 |
Papers, undatedIncludes an undated letter from George Y. M. Miller to his father concerning Owin, who sought work at William Miller's plantation and undated land plats from Pittsylvania County. |