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 Thomas Crawford Papers #5473-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Michael Brown Rare Books for the Southern Historical Collection, received 9 August 2010 (Acc. 101332).

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: Martin Gengenbach, November 2010

Encoded by: Martin Gengenbach, November 2010

Conscious Editing Work by: Nancy Kaiser, July 2020. Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, and scope and content note.

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.

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.

• African Americans--Ohio--History--19th century.
• Crawford, Thomas, b. 1817.
• Delaware (Ohio)--History.
• Delaware (Ohio)--Social life and customs.
• Enslaved persons--Emancipation--Kentucky.
• Enslaved persons--Kentucky.
• Freedmen--Correspondence.
• Freedmen--Ohio.
• Montgomery County (Ky.)--History.
• Mount Sterling (Ky.)--History.
• Slaveholders--Kentucky.
• Slavery--Kentucky.
• Slavery--United States--History--19th century--Sources.

Thomas Crawford, who was enslaved by Thomas Mosley of Mount Sterling, Ky., was sold to James Crawford also of Mount Sterling, Ky. Thomas Crawford was manumitted by James Crawford in 1842 and moved to Delaware, Ohio, with his wife Hattie and their children. At the time of the 1880 census, he was listed as a widower and retired barber living in Delaware, Ohio. His sons Steward (b. 1843) and Eugene (b. 1859) and his daughters Francis (b. 1854), Maggie (b. 1856), and Harriot (b. 1857) were also listed in the Crawford household.

The collection contains a 1 April 1844 letter from Thomas Crawford to his former enslaver, Thomas Mosley, commenting on his life in Delaware, Ohio. In the letter, Crawford addressed Mosley as "Farther" and mentiond receiving money from Mosley, which he used to pay off a mortgage debt, and renting property out to "a Dutchman to crop on the haves." Crawford also mentiond his son, Steward Crawford, in the letter. Also included is a copy of the 1836 will of James Crawford, containing instructions to manumit Thomas Crawford after his death and urging Thomas to move his family to Ohio. The will was certified as a true copy by the Montgomery County, Ky., court in December 1841 and was signed and dated with seal on 3 May 1842 by James Howard, clerk, and on 18 May 1842 by Joseph Bondurant, justice of the peace.