Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 George William Whitfield Papers, #3354-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. Frank Lawrence of Rocky Mount, N.C., April 1958.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1.

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

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, March 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

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.

• Agriculture--Alabama--History--19th century.
• Family--Alabama--Social life and customs.
• Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Gaston County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Marengo County (Ala.)--Social life and customs.
• Plantations--Alabama--Marengo County.
• Plantations--Management.
• Whitfield, George William, 1829-1871.
• Whitfield, Mary Louisa Wimberly, fl. 1849-1850.

• Henry G. Connor Papers (#175).

George William Whitfield (1829-1871) was born in Edgecombe County, N.C., but moved with his parents to Alabama in about 1836. George William Whitfield attended the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia, and began farming on a plantation in Marengo County, Ala. He later returned to North Carolina and became a lawyer, settling first in Shelby and finally in Wilson. Whitfield was married to Mary Louisa Wimberly Whitfield of Edgecombe County, N.C. Among the children of George William and Mary Louisa Whitfield were Katharine (Kate), who married Henry Groves Connor, and Margaret, who was the second wife of Richard H. Speight.

The collection is chiefly letters, 1849-1850, from George W. Whitfield, planter of Marengo County, Ala., and his wife, Mary Louisa Wimberly Whitfield, to her relatives in Edgecombe County, N.C. These letters discuss plantation management and farming operations, housekeeping activities, and family matters including Mary's brother Robert's involvement in the Confederate Army. Also included are two letters, 1865, from G. W. Jones, High Shoals, Gaston County, N.C., reporting family and neighborhood news. There are also a few papers related to George William Whitfields education at the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina.