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 James A. Johnston Papers #383-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. F.O. Johnston of Davidson, N.C., in July 1932.

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: Patrick Huber, September 1992

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

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.

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.

• Confederate States of America. Army--Medical care.
• Johnston, James A. (James Alexander), 1809-1882.
• Military hospitals--Confederate States of America.
• Petersburg (Va.)--History--19th century.
• Slave bills of sale.
• Slave records--North Carolina.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Hospitals.

James A. Johnston (b. 1809), was a merchant, planter, and slaveholder of Iredell County, N.C. In 1864, he served as a steward in a Confederate Army field hospital in Petersburg, Va.

The three items in this collection are an 1845 bill of sale for Johnston's purchase of a 23-year-old black slave named Henry for $450 from David Holdsclaw of Iredell County, N.C.; an 1864 letter from Johnston in Petersburg, Va., where he was serving as a hospital steward, to his uncle about Johnston's activities; and a list of birth and death records, presumably for black slaves, with entries ranging from 1825 to 1867.