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Size | 1.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 742 items) |
Abstract | The collection documents the white Bullock, Hamilton, Coleman, Tarry, and Watkins families of Granville (now Vance) County, N.C., Mecklenburg County, Va., and Lowndes County, Miss., as well as people who were enslaved by them; Sally Fain, "a free woman of colour"; and Claiborn Littlejohn, a free Black person of New Orleans, La. Bullock family material consists of correspondence; financial and legal papers, including receipts and wills that document enslaved people and how they were trafficked; genealogical information; printed material; manuscript volumes of general store accounts; and some diary entries for the Bullock family of Granville County, N.C., especially William Bullock (1776-1829) and his son John Bullock (1799-1866). Early twentieth-century letters are chiefly to Mary E. Bullock from family members in Henderson, Williamsboro, Montpelier, and Nutbush, N.C. Materials of members of the Hamilton and related families concern Charles Eaton Hamilton, a plantation owner of Granville County, N.C., and Lowndes County, Miss.; people enslaved by him; and the families of his wives, Jane Coleman (d. 1850) and Sally Tarry Watkins, both of Mecklenburg County, Va. Correspondence concerns the trafficking of enslaved people and cases of self-emancipation by enslaved people; family and neighborhood news; courtship, child raising and the role of women as wives and mothers; the management of the family's plantations, including references to Indigenous people harvesting cotton in Mississippi; crop and land sales; Episcopal Church matters; the Civil War; and descriptions of life in Mobile, Ala., after the Civil War. There are also a few financial and legal papers, including a list of enslaved people with name, age, and in some cases familial relationships and occupational information, and a record book detailing plantation expenses in Mississippi, as well as other miscellaneous financial and legal documents belonging to unknown individuals. |
Creator | Bullock (Family : Williamsboro, N.C.)
Hamilton (Family : Granville County, N.C.) |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Elizabeth Pauk, August 1992; Meaghan Alston and Nancy Kaiser, November 2021
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, September 2020, January 2021, May 2024
Conscious Editing work by: Nancy Kaiser, November 2021. Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, scope and content notes, and contents list.
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.
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.
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.
The Bullock and Hamilton families, merchants and farmers of Granville (now Vance) County, N.C. William ("Billy") Bullock (1776-1829), a merchant in Williamsboro, married his first cousin, Lucy Martin Bullock (1775-1842). Their son John Bullock (1799-1866) ran the family store with his father. In 1824, John Bullock married Susan M. Cobb (1803-1875). Their son Walter Bullock married Judith Christian Watkins, who was the daughter of Sally Tarry Watkins Hamilton, second wife of Charles Eaton Hamilton.
Charles Eaton Hamilton (1816-1855), the son of merchant Patrick Hamilton (died 1851) of Williamsboro, managed the Hamilton family plantations in Granville County, N.C., and Lowndes County, Miss., dividing his time between the two states, and traveling to Mobile, Ala., and other cities to oversee sales of cotton and other crops. In 1840, he married Jane Coleman (died 1850) of Boydton, Mecklenburg County, Va., and they had at least three children, Patrick, Henrietta, and Henry. After Jane Coleman Hamilton's death, Charles Eaton Hamilton married Sally Tarry Watkins of Clarksville, Mecklenburg County, Va., widow of Joel T. Watkins.
People enslaved by members of these families are listed below. NOTE: parenthetical information is derived from original documents; the archivist has used more modern terms to describe the physical condition of Jordan, the age of Patience, and the occupations of Dick, Charity, Charlotte, Eily, and William.
Active 1820s: Peter (blacksmith), Tom (blacksmith), Gabriel, Joe, Silvey, Creatia, Ebek, Bob (from Nutbush), Mick, Jimmy, Peter (child), Anthony (child), Jonas, Salley (mother of at least 7 children), Sammy, Celia (age 15), Curtis and his wife.
Active 1830s-1840s: Washington, Page, Damon, Kitty and her three children, Willis, John (age 49), Ben (age 37), Dick (age 38, house worker and gardener), Jordan (age 40, disabled), Lewis (age 35), Hensly (age 24, husband of Dicey), Jack (age 22), Beverly (age 21), Frank (age 26), Prince (age 37, husband of Hannah), Amistead (age 35, blacksmith), Warner (age 18), Charity (age 35, house worker and seamstress), Elvira (age 5, child of Charity), Bolin (age 8, child of Charity), Cloe (infant(?), child of Charity), Hannah (age 33, wife of Prince), Harold (age 12, child of Hannah), Mary (age 9, child of Hannah), Amas (age 7, child of Hannah), Betsy (age 5, child of Hannah), Dick (age 3, child of Hannah), Infant (age 6 months, child of Hannah), Charlotte (age 26, a textile and dairy worker, mother of 2 children ages 1 and 2), Eily (age 15, house worker), Patience (elderly woman), Sally (age 10, child of Patience), Parthina, Ben (age 8, child of Parthina), Boat (age 6, child of Parthina), unnamed infant (age 1, child of Parthina), Suckey (weaver), William (age 16, agricultural worker), Susan, Dicey (wife of Hensly), Margaret (wife of John, mother of two children ages 3 and 1), Raleigh, Moses (attempted self-emancipation), Albert, Nelson (possibly a carpenter).
Active 1850s: Nannie, Isabella, Robert (self-emancipated), and William (cook).
Claiborn Littlejohn (active 1851) was a free Black person in New Orleans who sought to purchase the freedom of his sisters, Nannie and Isabella, who were enslaved by Charles E. Hamilton.
Sally Fain (d. 1854), "a woman of colour," was married to Jacob Fain, and was the enslaver of Dick and Sally.
Back to TopThe collection documents the white Bullock, Hamilton, Coleman, Tarry, and Watkins families of Granville (now Vance) County, N.C., Mecklenburg County, Va., and Lowndes County, Miss., as well as people who were enslaved by them; Sally Fain, "a free woman of colour"; and Claiborn Littlejohn, a free Black person of New Orleans, La.
Bullock family material consists of correspondence; financial and legal papers, including receipts and wills that document enslaved people and how they were trafficked; genealogical information; printed material; manuscript volumes of general store accounts; and some diary entries for the Bullock family of Granville County, N.C., especially William Bullock (1776-1829) and his son John Bullock (1799-1866). Early twentieth-century letters are chiefly to Mary E. Bullock (1874-1928) from family members in Henderson, Williamsboro, Montpelier, and Nutbush, N.C.
Materials of members of the Hamilton and related families concern Charles Eaton Hamilton, a plantation owner of Granville County, N.C., and Lowndes County, Miss.; people enslaved by him; and the families of his wives, Jane Coleman (d. 1850) and Sally Tarry Watkins, both of Mecklenburg County, Va. Correspondence concerns the trafficking of enslaved people and cases of self-emancipation by enslaved people; family and neighborhood news; courtship, child raising and the role of women as wives and mothers; the management of the family's plantations, including references to Indigenous people harvesting cotton in Mississippi; crop and land sales; Episcopal Church matters; the Civil War; and descriptions of life in Mobile, Ala., after the Civil War. There are also a few financial and legal papers, including a list of enslaved people with name, age, and in some cases familial relationships and occupational information, and a record book detailing plantation expenses in Mississippi, as well as other miscellaneous financial and legal documents belonging to unknown individuals.
Back to TopCorrespondence, financial and legal papers, genealogical information, some printed material, manuscript volumes of account books, and a diary, documenting members of the white Bullock family, as well as people enslaved by them, of Williamsboro, Granville (now Vance) County, N.C.
Arrangement: chronological.
Bullock family correspondence consists primarily of business letters to John Bullock regarding financial matters, household expenditures, the management of his plantation, his tobacco crop and sales, the settlement of estates, and a dispute with his overseer. There are a number of letters from N. Martin, an agricultural dealer in Petersburg, Va. There is also personal correspondence from relatives and friends detailing neighborhood activities and news, religious views, local diseases and illnesses, and descriptions of school life. Items of interest include a letter from an acquaintance in Washington, D.C., seeking to leave the ministry to open a girl's school and giving his thoughts on slavery and living in the South, and the ruminations of friends and relatives on aging.
The addition of May 2007 consists of family letters, chiefly to Mary E. Bullock, from family members in Henderson, Williamsboro, Montpelier, Nutbush, N.C.
Folder 1 |
Correspondence, 1836-1841 |
Folder 2 |
Correspondence, 1842-1847 |
Folder 3 |
Correspondence, 1851-1853 |
Folder 4 |
Correspondence, 1865-1866 and undated |
Folder 41-42
Folder 41Folder 42 |
Correspondence, 1904-1909 and undatedAcquisitions Information: Accession 100653 Family letters, chiefly to Mary E. Bullock, from family members in Henderson, Williamsboro, Montpelier, Nutbush, N.C. |
Arrangement: chronological.
Financial and legal papers of the Bullock family, primarily those of William Bullock and his son, John Bullock. From 1801 to 1830, the papers consist of a land survey, indentures, receipts, a report on court sessions, and the will of William Bullock, which documents Peter and Tom, who were blacksmiths enslaved by William Bullock and willed to his son Jame M. Bullock. Other enslaved people mentioned in the will include Gabriel, Joe, Silvey, Creatia, Ebek, Bob (from Nutbush), Mick, Jimmy, Peter (child), Anthony (child), Jonas, Salley (mother of at least 7 children), Sammy, and Celia (15 years old).
From 1830 to 1861, the papers are those of John Bullock, but many enslaved people are documented, including Washington, Page, Damon, Kitty and her three children, Willis, Dick, and Sally. Materials include receipts, a land survey, a list of property owners in the Nutbush District of Granville County, miscellaneous accounts, items relating to the collection of notes, records of household and plantation expenses, an order to build a bridge in Nutbush District, and the will of Sally Fain, "a woman of colour." There are also a few receipts and the will of John Bullock's mother, Lucy Martin Bullock Bullock.
Extra Oversize Paper Folder XOPF-101/1 |
Property deeds and indentures, 1760-1803 |
Folder 5 |
Financial and Legal Papers, 1801-1833Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:
|
Folder 6 |
Financial and Legal Papers, 1834-1861, 1883.Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:
|
Arrangement: chronological.
Genealogical information on the Bullock, Carr, and Cheek families; family group records of the Bullock family; and abstracts of the Bullock family papers, all compiled by Lewis T. Bullock, M.D., of Los Angeles, Ca.
Folder 7 |
Genealogical information, 1971 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Two circulars from 1840 and 1853 addressed to John Bullock as the Superintendent of Granville County Schools; minutes from an 1855 meeting of the Southern Central Agricultural Association; and a 1853 circular on the tobacco harvest and prices from N. M. Martin & Co., in Petersburg, Va.
Folder 8 |
Printed material, 1850-1854 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Manuscript volumes consist of four account books for William and John Bullock's general store in Williamsboro, and one account book containing diary entries of Susan Cobb Bullock, who was married to John Bullock.
Oversize Volume SV-101/1 |
Volume 1: General store account book, December 1800-June 1801Pages 305-436. Lists customer names and items purchased by date. |
Folder 9 |
Folder not used |
Folder 10 |
Volume 2: Ledger and Blacksmith Book, January 1805-December 1805156 pages. Lists customer names, work performed, dates, and balances. |
Folder 11 |
Volume 3: Day Book, July 1918-August 1819Pages 97-150. Probably belonging to William ("Billy") Bullock, lists by date customer names, items purchased, and balances. The volume has some torn pages and is in very fragile condition. |
Folder 12 |
Volume 4: Account book, 1866-1867139 pages. Book of sales listed by customer, giving date, items purchased and cost, with an index to customer names sewn in the front of the volume. Entries are by John Bullock and his successor. |
Folder 13 |
Volume 5: Account book, 1833-1869; diary, January 1857-1869Includes customer accounts and lists of purchases; medicinal cures and dye recipes; lists of horses; planting and harvest notes; and diary entries, which include some loose pages, by Susan Cobb Bullock, who was married to John Bullock, consisting of weather and planting notes, records of family and household activities, and personal sentiments. There is a list of expenses for 1837 in the back of the volume. |
Papers of the Hamilton family of Williamsboro, Granville (now Vance) County, N.C., primarily of Charles Eaton Hamilton, including family correspondence and other papers related to his management of the Hamilton family's Lowndes County, Miss., plantation, as well as correspondence of the families of his two wives, Jane Coleman of Boydton, Mecklenburg County, Va., and Sally Tarry Watkins of Clarksville, Mecklenburg County, Va. There is also some scattered documentation of people enslaved by Hamilton family members and others, including Curtis, a blacksmith, and his wife; Albert, who died while trafficked to Sinecum's shop; Nelson, who may have been a carpenter; Moses and Robert who had both self-emancipated; and sisters Nannie and Isabella, whose brother Claiborn Littlejohn, a free Black person in New Orleans, sought to buy their freedom. There is also a list that documents 38 enlaved people, most of them by name and age, and in some cases occupation.
Arrangement: chronological.
Loose papers are primarily those of Charles Eaton Hamilton and his two wives, Jane Coleman and Sally Tarry Watkins, including a few items belonging to Joel Watkins, Sally Tarry's first husband. There is also some scattered documentation of people enslaved by Hamilton family members and others, including Curtis, a blacksmith, and his wife; Albert, who died while trafficked to Sinecum's shop; Nelson, who may have been a carpenter; Moses and Robert who had both self-emancipated; and sisters Nannie and Isabella, whose brother Claiborn Littlejohn, a free Black person in New Orleans, sought to buy their freedom. There is also a list that documents 38 enlaved people, most of them by name and age, and in some cases with familial relationships and occupational information.
In the 1830s, the papers chiefly consist of correspondence, giving news of family and neighborhood activities, illnesses and marriages; student life at Hampden-Sidney College; descriptions of a fire in Petersburg, Va., and the burning of the Bowery Theater in New York City in 1836; and impressions of an 1838 visit to the U.S. Congress and of individual members, including John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster. There are many letters from Charles Eaton Hamilton's father and brothers, as well as other individuals, regarding the trafficking of enslaved people either by sales or what was then called hiring out, the management of the family plantation in Lowndes County, Miss., farming and business matters, land sales in the Arkansas Territory, and cotton and tobacco sales. In 1838, Patrick Hamilton was involved in a lawsuit involving a shipment of goods to his store in Williamsboro. There are legal documents, including a sworn deposition from Charles Eaton Hamilton, and correspondence relating to the charges, which were eventually dropped.
In the 1840s, there is correspondence between Charles Eaton Hamilton and his father, brothers, and business associates, concerning their treatment of people they enslaved and instances of enslaved people seeking to self-emancipate, as well as references to Charles Eaton Hamilton's use of Indigenous people to pick cotton on the Lowndes County, Miss., plantation. The correspondence also discusses plantation management, crop and land sales.
Personal letters from family and friends of Charles Eaton Hamilton, Jane Coleman, and Sally Tarry Watkins give details of family life, social events, and neighborhood activities and disputes; religious beliefs and conversions and the high-church movement in the Episcopal Church; temperance movements and societies; and opinions on national and local politics. Many letters chronicle Charles Eaton Hamilton's courtship of Jane Coleman, their marriage in 1840, and the birth of their children Patrick, Henrietta, and Henry, with Jane's family giving her advice on child raising and her role as a wife and mother. Items of interest include a lengthy description of a spa, a mock tournament and ball held there, and the relations of Northerners and Southerners at the spa; a description of burial customs of Roman Catholics in New Bern, N.C.; and references to the Mexican War, the North's view of the treatment of enslaved people, the relocation of emancipated people to the North, and the Irish potato famine.
After 1846, the papers are predominantly concerned with enslaved people and business matters--tobacco, cotton, and farming. In 1850, Jane Coleman Hamilton died, and, in 1851, Patrick Hamilton, Charles Eaton Hamilton's father died. In addition to business correspondence, there are a few bereavement letters from relatives, personal correspondence regarding Hamilton's eventual marriage to Sally Tarry Watkins in 1853, and a letter from the daughter of a veteran of the War of 1812, seeking pension information.
After Charles Eaton Hamilton's death in 1855, the papers consist of letters to Sally Tarry Watkins Hamilton from her family and Hamilton relatives, giving social and household news. Letters during and following the Civil War include two from a soldier in the Army of Tennessee describing the aftermath of the Battle of Chickamauga; a discussion of the behavior of formerly enslaved people after the Civil War; the state of the South during Reconstruction and the effects of emancipation; daily life in Mobile, Ala., including riots and elections in 1867; and high-church practices and other "romish abuses" in the Episcopal Church.
Undated items include letters to Sally Tarry Watkins, Jane Coleman, and Charles Eaton Hamilton regarding family and social news and events; illnesses, romances, and marriages; a letter to Charles Eaton Hamilton regarding an enslaved person who had attempted self-emancipation, a police constable seeking to entrap him, and the person's chances of escaping to the North; a list of medicinal cures; and a letter describing a visit to a gypsy fortune teller.
Folder 14 |
Loose papers, 1827-1835Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:
|
Folder 15 |
Loose papers, 1836-1837 |
Folder 16 |
Loose papers, 1838 |
Folder 17 |
Loose papers, 1839 |
Folder 18 |
Loose papers, January-April 1840 |
Folder 19 |
Loose papers, May-December 1840Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: NOTE: the archivist has used more modern terms to describe the physical condition of Jordan, the age of Patience, and the occupations of Dick, Charity, Charlotte, Eily, and William. 26 December 1840: List of enslaved people, including John (age 49), Ben (age 37), Dick (house worker and gardener, age 38), Jordan (disabled, age 40), Lewis (age 35), Hensly (husband of Dicey, age 24), Jack (age 22), Beverly (age 21), Frank (age 26), Prince (husband of Hannah, age 37), Amistead (Blacksmith, age 35), Warner (age 18), Charity (house worker and seamstress, age 35), Elvira (child of Charity, age 5), Bolin (child of Charity, age 8), Cloe (infant(?), child of Charity), Hannah (wife of Prince, age 33), Harold (child of Hannah, age 12), Mary (child of Hannah, age 9), Amas (child of Hannah, age 7), Betsy (child of Hannah, age 5), Dick (child of Hannah, age 3), Infant (child of Hannah, age 6 months), Charlotte (textile and dairy worker, age 26, mother of 2 children ages 1 and 2), Eily (house worker, age 15), Patience (elderly woman), Sally (daughter of Patience, age 10), Parthina, Ben (child of Parthina, age 8), Boat (child of Parthina, age 6), unnamed infant (child of Parthina, age 1), Suckey (weaver), William (agricultural worker, age 16), Susan, Dicey (wife of Hensly), Margaret (wife of John, mother of two children ages 3 and 1), and Raleigh. The list was sent to Patrick Hamilton at Granville from E. Coleman(?). |
Folder 20 |
Loose papers, 1841 |
Folder 21 |
Loose papers, 1842 |
Folder 22 |
Loose papers, 1843Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:
|
Folder 23 |
Loose papers, 1844 |
Folder 24 |
Loose papers, 1845 |
Folder 25 |
Loose papers, 1846Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:
There is documentation of trafficking of enslaved people in business correspondence, however no individuals are mentioned by name. |
Folder 26 |
Loose papers, 1847-1848 |
Folder 27 |
Loose papers, 1849 |
Folder 28 |
Loose papers, 1850 |
Folder 29 |
Loose papers, 1851Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:
|
Folder 30 |
Loose papers, 1852-1853Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:
|
Folder 31 |
Loose papers, 1854-1859 |
Folder 32 |
Loose papers, 1860-1865 |
Folder 33 |
Loose papers, 1866-1882 |
Folder 34 |
Loose papers, Undated |
This volume consists of agricultural records and expenses for the Hamilton family's Peachland Prairie Plantation in Lowndes County, Miss., including a land survey, miscellaneous accounts, lists of deposits, inventories and lists of articles and livestock on the plantation, and Charles Eaton Hamilton's travel expenses between Mississippi and North Carolina.
Folder 35 |
Volume 6: Peachland Prairie Plantation journal, 1837-1838 |
Financial and legal papers include documentation of William, an enslaved cook who was trafficked in Jacksonville, Duval County, Fla., by I. T. Linde van Hantschke to W. D. Harrison, and indentures, land surveys, receipts, lists of accounts, bills of sale for household items and agricultural supplies, legal summonses, business correspondence regarding missionary funds for the Presbyterian Church, and sheets with lists of figures, crop sales, and miscellaneous notes. The papers belonged to numerous individuals, with no clear connection to the Bullock and Hamilton families.
Folder 36 |
Miscellaneous financial and legal papers, 1757-1837 |
Folder 37 |
Miscellaneous financial and legal papers, 1840-1845 |
Folder 38 |
Miscellaneous financial and legal papers, 1851-1852 |
Folder 39 |
Miscellaneous financial and legal papers, 1853-1858Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:
|
Folder 40 |
Miscellaneous financial and legal papers, Undated |