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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
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.
Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this finding aid. Funding from the Terry and Laurie Sanford Library Fund supported the digitization of this collection.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 69.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 33,000 items) |
| Abstract | The Orange County, Durham County, Person County, and Raleigh, N.C. plantations of the Cameron family were home to several generations of white Cameron and Bennehan family members and more than one thousand people enslaved by them. The Camerons also owned substantial plantations and enslaved people in Greene County, Ala., and Tunica County, Miss. North Carolina plantations and family houses included Belvin's Quarter, Bennehan Square, Bennehan Mill (later Red Mill), Bobbitt's, Brick House, Burnside, Eno Mill, Eno Quarters, Fairntosh (sometimes referred to as "Home House"), Fish Dam, Horton Grove, Hunt's Place, Jim Ray's, Jones's Quarter, Leathers, Little River, McKissack's, Mill Quarter (or Person's Mill), North Point, Peaksville Place, Person, Snow Hill, and Stagville. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, financial and legal documents, and account books that detail plantation management, as well as the relationships, social lives, and well-being of wealthy white men, their wives and children, and the community of enslaved people whose forced labor generated the family's wealth. Of note are materials that identify or document enslaved people, including plantation lists and ledgers that record names, ages, family relationships, labor, and provisioning; bills of sale; account records that show medical care, labor, and supplies; and legal case files that concern enslaved people claimed as property. There is extensive information about Richard Bennehan's store at Stagville, N.C., and the Stagville and Fairntosh plantations, including crop records. Other topics include Duncan Cameron's legal career, the State Bank of North Carolina and the banking industry, the education of the Cameron children at various schools, the development of the University of North Carolina, the state militia, the Episcopal Church, railroads, and state government. There are also speeches, writings, printed material, pictures, and miscellaneous other types of personal papers. |
| Creator | Cameron (Family : Orange County, N.C.) |
| Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
| Language | English |
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Processing Information
Processed by: Marion Hirsch and Lisa Tolbert, June 1989
Encoded by: Peter Hymas, June 2005
Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, May 2010; Jodi Berkowitz, April 2018
Conscious Editing by: Laura Hart, February 2020 (Updated terminology for intellectual disabilities); Nancy Kaiser and Davia Webb, August 2023 (Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, collection overview, contents list. The sub-subseries structure of contents list also was simplified and condensed to subseries. See series level processing notes for more information.)
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.
Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the encoding of this finding aid.
Funding from the Terry and Laurie Sanford Library Fund supported the digitization of this collection.
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Subject Headings
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.
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Biographical Information
The white Cameron and Bennehan families were two of antebellum North Carolina's wealthiest families. On the eve of the Civil War, Paul C. Cameron and his siblings enslaved more than one thousand people and owned nearly thirty thousand acres of plantation land in Orange, Person, Granville, and Wake Counties, and additional plantations in Greene County, Ala., and Tunica County, Miss. North Carolina plantations and family houses included Belvin's Quarter, Bennehan Square, Bennehan Mill (later Red Mill), Bobbitt's, Brick House, Burnside, Eno Mill, Eno Quarters, Fairntosh (sometimes referred to as "Home House"), Fish Dam, Horton Grove, Hunt's Place, Jim Ray's, Jones's Quarter, Leathers, Little River, McKissack's, Mill Quarter (or Person's Mill), North Point, Peaksville Place, Person, Snow Hill, and Stagville. Enslaved people generated wealth for the Camerons and Bennehans from at least 1776.
The family originally migrated to the Piedmont of North Carolina from neighboring Virginia, beginning in the mid-eighteenth century. The first to arrive in North Carolina was Richard Bennehan, Paul C. Cameron's maternal grandfather.
Richard Bennehan was born 15 April 1743, near Warsaw in Richmond County, Va. He was the fifth child of Rachel and Dudley Bennehan, modest landowners of Irish descent. Dudley Bennehan died when Richard was only six, and did not leave any of his estate to Richard. Instead, Richard was apprenticed to a local merchant. In 1762, he moved to Petersburg, Va., where he was employed by Edward Stabler, a commission merchant. In 1768, William Johnston, a North Carolina back country merchant and landowner, offered Bennehan a one-third partnership in the Little River Store, located on Johnston's Snowhill Plantation near Hillsborough, N.C. Johnson had bought bought the land that would become Snow Hill plantation from James Rae (also spelled Rea, Ray and Wray). The store was on the heavily traveled Indian Trading Path that ran through the back country of North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia.
Bennehan accepted the offer, and moved to North Carolina in late 1768 or early 1769. The business prospered under Bennehan and he began to invest the profits in enslaved people and land. In 1776, Bennehan purchase 1,200 acres of plantation land. In 1776 or 1777, he married Mary Amis of Northampton County, N.C., who also owned land and enslaved at least 5 people through an inheritance from her father. When her brother Thomas Amis Jr. gave up farming in Halifax County, N.C., he contributed an additional 20 enslaved people to the Bennehan holdings. Richard and Mary Bennehan's first home was at Brick House Plantation, formerly owned by Tyree Harris, the sheriff of Orange County, N.C.
When Bennehan's partner William Johnston died in 1785, Bennehan opened his own store. He bought property on the Trading Path from Judith Stagg, and opened what became the Stagville Store. Soon after, Bennehan built a modest plantation house near the store, and the family moved from Brick House to Stagville. By 1799, Bennehan owned almost 4,000 acres of land and over 44 enslaved people. In 1802, Bennehan bought more land and opened a Wake County store and plantation where Fish Dam Road crossed the Neuse River.
Bennehan's prosperity as a merchant, landowner, and enslaver translated to social power and influence in the civic life of North Carolina. He apparently had been an earnest patriot in the Revolution and was a close friend of William Richardson Davie, a Revolutionary War military officer and governor of the state (1798-1799). Through his association with Davie, Bennehan became an early supporter of the University of North Carolina, donating books and supplies, as well as serving on the University's Board of Visitors and Board of Trustees. Bennehan also served on the commission that planned the new state capitol building in Raleigh.
Richard and Mary Amis Bennehan had two children, Rebecca, born in 1778, and Thomas Dudley, born in 1782. Thomas was one of the first students to attend the University of North Carolina. He matriculated in 1795 as a student in the preparatory school. He received his degree in 1801, after which he returned to Stagville to help his father manage the store and plantation. Thomas D. Bennehan never married. After his father died in 1825, he inherited the Stagville land, and continued to live there, managing the plantation until his death in 1847. Although not as active in civic matters as his father had been, Thomas D. Bennehan served on the Board of Trustees of the University for 35 years, from 1812 until his death in 1847. After Thomas D. Bennehan's death, his nephew Paul C. Cameron and niece Rebecca Bennehan Cameron received large tracts of plantation land and dozens of enslaved people. Bennehan's estate impacted the enslaved community who were devised to different heirs or relocated to different plantations. Bennehan's will emancipated an enslaved servant, Virgil Bennehan, his wife Phoebe, and her niece and nephew, Maragaret and William, and provided funds for their passage to Liberia.
Thomas D. Bennehan's sister Rebecca was educated at home. When she married Duncan Cameron in 1803, her father gave the newlywed couple land adjoining the Stagville. This became the site of Fairntosh, a large plantation house, built starting in 1810. Her dowry also included 26 enslaved people once held by her maternal uncle Thomas Amis Jr.
Duncan Cameron was born on 15 December 1777, in Mecklenburg County, Va. His father John Cameron was an Anglican minister and a recent immigrant from Scotland. John Cameron's wife was Ann Owen Nash, the daughter of Colonel Thomas Nash, one of the King's Attorneys.
Duncan Cameron was educated by his father, who, in addition to being a minister, ran several academies in the various parishes he served in Virginia. After studying law under Paul Carrington, Duncan Cameron was licensed to practice in 1797. He immediately moved to North Carolina, first to Warrenton, then Martinsville, finally settling in Hillsborough in 1799. He brought with him from Virginia at least one enslaved person, Jim.
As a lawyer, Cameron quickly gained wealth and social and political influence. From 1814 to 1816, he served as Superior Court Judge. He also served several terms in the North Carolina House, in 1806, 1807, 1812, and 1813. He then served three terms in the State Senate in 1819, 1822, and 1823. While in the Senate Cameron served as chairman of the influential Committee on Internal Improvement, which had been originally led by Cameron's friend, Archibald Murphey. In 1812, he was appointed Major General of the North Carolina Militia and served in that capacity until 1814. He, like Bennehan, served on the Board of Trustees from 1802 until 1853.
Cameron was instrumental in the development of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina in the 1820s. In 1833, he bought the defunct Episcopal School for Boys in Raleigh, reestablishing it with the Rev. Aldert Smedes as its director. In 1841, the school became Saint Mary's, an Episcopal girls' school, with Rev. Aldert Smedes again as director. The school remained in Cameron family hands until it was sold to the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina in 1897. Duncan Cameron also helped to establish Christ Church in Raleigh, and built Salem Chapel at Fairntosh, where the Cameron family and some enslaved people attended services.
When the State Bank of North Carolina was formed in 1811, Duncan Cameron was one of its first directors, and in 1829 he accepted its presidency. Later the bank was dissolved and reformed as the Bank of the State of North Carolina. Cameron served as president of the new bank from 1834 until his resignation in 1849.
After his 1803 marriage to Rebecca Bennehan, Duncan Cameron jointly invested with the Bennehan family in merchant partnerships and plantation slavery. He formed a number of partnerships with various family members to run stores in North Carolina and Virginia. The most important of these partnerships were with his father-in-law Richard Bennehan and brother-in-law Thomas D. Bennehan. The first was a limited partnership drawn up in 1806, giving Thomas D. Bennehan and Duncan Cameron a share in the management and profits of the store at Fishdam Ford on the Neuse River, opened by Richard Bennehan in 1802. The second partnership drawn up in 1807 was much more extensive. It combined the Bennehan and Cameron plantations, enslaved people, stores, and flour and sawmills into one powerful and profitable enterprise. The plantations and stores were managed by the Bennehans and overseers, while Duncan Cameron provided his legal and financial expertise to the business. Enslaved people planted and harvested wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, cotton, and tobacco and raised sheep and cattle. Enslaved people also labored as foremen (Luke, Solomon, Virgil, Ovid) waggoners (Jerry, "Whiskey George"), coachmen, tanners, carpenters, millers (Cyrus, Daniel, Matthew), blacksmiths (Lewis), shoemakers (Ben, Lewis Toe, Robbin, Streton, Walker), coopers, gardeners, weavers, doctors (Virgil), and nurses (Mary Walker, Minerva, Christiana, Moriah).
Beginning in 1809, Duncan Cameron purchased additional plantation land in Person County, N.C. In December 1818, he purchased at least 40 enslaved people in Amelia County, Va., many of whom were brought to this plantation. By 1828, Duncan Cameron controlled oever 5,000 acres of land there. By 1845, at least 88 individuals were enslaved on this Person County property.
Cameron was also involved in a partnership beginning in 1802 with his step nephew George Anderson, establishing a store in Hillsborough, N.C., which later moved to Martinsville, Va. In the 1810s, Cameron started a commission merchant firm in Petersburg, Va., with his brother William Cameron and Samuel Snow. These and other business ventures of Duncan Cameron were largely unsuccessful except for the lucrative partnership with Thomas and Richard Bennehan.
Rebecca and Duncan Cameron had eight children: Mary Anne (b. 1804), Thomas Amis Dudley (b. 1806), Paul Carrington (b. 1808), Margaret Bain (b. 1811), Rebecca Bennehan (b. 1813), Jean Syme (b. 1815), Anne Owen (b. 1817), and Mildred Coles (b. 1820).
The Cameron girls, except Mary Anne, were educated at home by governesses. Mary McLean Bryant, who was one of the governesses, corresponded with the girls long after she left the Cameron's employ; she returned many years later to tend the children of Paul C. Cameron. Mary Anne attended Jacob Mordecai's Seminary in Warrenton, N.C., for several years, leaving in 1818.
Paul and Thomas had a number of tutors, including W. P. Mangum, before they were sent away to school. Finding a school suitable for Thomas, who had an intellectual disability, proved difficult. In 1813, he was sent to Lunenberg, Va., to attend his grandfather John Cameron's school. He was then sent to John Rudd's School in Elizabethtown, N.J., and finally, in 1820, to Captain Partridge's school in Norwich, Vt.
Paul attended the Hillsborough Academy and started preparatory school at the University of North Carolina in 1824, but was expelled for fighting in 1825. He then transferred to Captain Partridge's school. Finally, he attended Washington College (now Trinity College) in Hartford, Conn., graduating in 1829.
Until Duncan Cameron moved the family to Raleigh in 1836, they were at risk of the same diseases that ravaged the enslaved population. Fevers and pneumonia from malaria and tuberculosis took the lives of many enslaved people, especially in the 1830s and 1840s when epidemics coincided with the clearing of more and more swampy "bottom" lands that had been purchased by the family.
Of the eight Cameron children, five experienced significant health problems. Mary Ann, Rebecca, Jean, and Anne contracted and died from tuberculosis. Rebecca, Jean, and Anne died in their twenties, and Mary Anne in her early thirties. During the same years, devastating outbreaks of infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, impacted many enslaved people on Cameron property. Mildred escaped tuberculosis but contracted an undiagnosed disease which left her partially paralyzed. Mildred traveled to see doctors in search of a cure, but remained an invalid throughout her adult life, in the care of her sister Margaret and enslaved nurses. One enslaved nurse, Mary Walker, self-emancipated by running away while accompanying the Camerons on a medical trip to Philadelphia in 1848. Mary's son Francis, called Frank, also liberated himself when he escaped from the Camerons in 1852.
Thomas Cameron lived until 1870, but he was dependent on his family throughout his adult life because of his intellectual disability.
Margaret B. Cameron lived at home, caring for her sick siblings and her ailing parents and managing the household until she was forty-two. Then, in 1853, she married George W. Mordecai, president of the State Bank of North Carolina, who had succeeded Duncan Cameron when he resigned the post in 1849. After their marriage, Margaret and her husband resided at the Cameron mansion in Raleigh with about 20 enslaved domestic servants. Margaret inherited control over hundreds of enslaved people and vast acreage from the estates of her father and her uncle Thomas D. Bennehan. In accordance with a pre-nuptial agreement, ownership of the enslaved people remained in her name, although her husband, hired overseers, and her brother Paul C. Cameron effectively managed her property. In November 1859, at least 100 enslaved people were trafficked by sale from Mordecai-Cameron land, followed by a smaller sale of over 60 people in February 1861.
Margaret and George Mordecai were childless, except for a stillbirth in 1854. After her marriage, Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai continued to care for her sister Mildred. Margaret outlived her husband and died in 1886. Her assets and property were left to her brother, Paul C. Cameron.
Paul C. Cameron read law and passed the bar in 1832, but was not interested in being a lawyer. He was interested in agriculture, and his ambition was to move to the Deep South and manage a cotton plantation. Nevertheless, he set up a law practice in Hillsborough, N.C. In 1832, he married Anne Ruffin (1814-1897), daughter of the jurist Thomas Ruffin. At first Paul and Anne Ruffin Cameron lived in a house in Hillsborough called Burnside. In December 1834, Duncan Cameron gifted 41 enslaved people to Paul C. Cameron. In 1837, Paul resigned from the bar, and the young couple moved to Fairntosh so that Paul could take over the management of the Cameron plantations alongside his uncle Thomas D. Bennehan. By this time Fairntosh was unoccupied. Duncan Cameron moved his family, as well as a small group of enslaved domestic servants, to Raleigh permanently in 1836 following his appointment as president of the Bank of the State of North Carolina.
Paul and Anne Ruffin Cameron lived at Fairntosh from 1837 until 1856, when they repurchased Burnside and moved back to Hillsborough. During the years at Fairntosh, Paul C. Cameron ambitiously directed the expansion of the plantation land and enslaved labor. In 1844, he purchased a cotton plantation in Greene County, Ala., and in November 1856, land for another cotton plantation in Tunica County, Miss. Families and kin networks were separated when enslaved people were forced to migrate to these new cotton plantations. In November 1844, 114 people walked from the Cameron plantations in North Carolina to Greene County, Ala. In December 1856, 35 people were moved from Alabama to Tunica County, Miss. In January 1858, 40 people were sent from North Carolina to Tunica County, and in November 1869, 42 more people were sent on the same route. During the American Civil War, in the spring of 1864, many of these families were evacuated back to North Carolina.
Paul C. Cameron was a founding member of North Carolina's earliest agricultural society. He was also a strong advocate for railroads in North Carolina. In the early 1850s, he contracted to build a section of the North Carolina Railroad with enslaved labor from his plantations. He also served on the board of directors of the North Carolina Railroad and was elected its president in 1861. Additionally, he was a director of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad and the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad.
Although Paul C. Cameron was not as politically active as his father, he ran for a seat in the state senate in 1856 and was elected. He was defeated when he ran for a second term.
At the eve of the American Civil War the Cameron siblings enslaved over one thousand people on plantations across Orange, Person, Granville, and Wake Counties in North Carolina, Greene County, Ala., and Tunica County, Miss. Although the Bennehans and Camerons purchased enslaved people up until around 1842, many enslaved people were direct descendents of early families enslaved by the Bennehans. Among the original enslaved family surnames are Amis, Dickinson, Walker, Bennehan, and Umstead. By the start of Reconstruction, the surnames of formerly enslaved families found on Cameron tenant contracts include Alston, Bigelow, Cain, Dunham/Durham, Evins, Glass, Harriss, Hart, Haskins, Holdt, Justice, Kirkland, Lashley, Latta, Love, Lunsford, Meeks, Peaks, Ruffin, Sears, Sewell, Shaw, Strudwick, Tate, Taylor, Veasy, and Webb.
Paul C. Cameron did not serve in the Confederate Army. He was excluded from the general amnesty granted most Southerners by the Union government because of his wealth. He applied for a special pardon, which he received in 1865. Although the Cameron fortune could no longer include the profits from enslaved people's value and labor, the family still owned vast real estate, stock, and through Reconstruction. Land was leased to white tenants or farmed by sharecroppers on contracts and Paul began to concentrate on the railroads and cotton manufacturing for income. By 1875, Paul C. Cameron had sold sections of his Alabama plantation land to a number of formerly enslaved Black men, including Sandy Cameron, Jim Hargis, and Paul Hargis.
After Reconstruction, Paul C. Cameron led the effort to rebuild and reopen the University of North Carolina. He was a member of the Board of Trustees and chairman of the Building Committee. Cameron himself donated the money for the building of the original Memorial Hall, as well as the maple trees that line Cameron Avenue, named in his honor.
Paul and Anne Ruffin Cameron had a dozen children. Two were stillborn; two died in infancy; one, Mary Amis, died at age eleven. The remaining offspring, Rebecca, Anne, Margaret, Duncan, Pauline, Bennehan, and Mildred survived to adulthood and married.
Rebecca first married Walker Anderson in 1863, then John Graham in 1867. Anne married George P. Collins in 1860. After the Civil War, Anne and George Collins went to Mississippi to manage Paul C. Cameron's plantation in Tunica County, and then returned to Durham, N.C. Margaret married Robert B. Peebles. Pauline married William Shepard and lived in Edenton. After Pauline's death, her sister Mildred Coles married the widower William Shepard.
Duncan and Bennehan were in school during the Civil War. Duncan spent some time in Mississippi living with his sister Anne Collins before settling down to marry Mary Short and take over the management of Fairntosh. His untimely death in 1886 was a great blow to his father.
Bennehan Cameron graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1875. He then moved to Stagville and took over the management of the plantation. After his brother's death, he moved to Fairntosh. He married Sally Mayo in 1891.
Paul C. Cameron died in 1891 leaving his family's vast fortune to his wife, his remaining son Bennehan, and his daughters.
NOTE: This biographical note was revised in 2023 to include more information about the community of people enslaved by the Cameron, Bennehan, and Mordecai families. Vera Cecelski of Stagville State Historic Site contributed to the revision. See also:
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Scope and Content
This collection documents many aspects of the personal lives and business affairs of the white Cameron and Bennehan families, particularly of its patriarchs Richard Bennehan, Bennehan's son-in-law Duncan Cameron, and Duncan Cameron's son Paul C. Cameron.
Enslaved people, who made up the majority of the plantation population, are also documented extensively in this collection, although there are few records created by them. Information about members of the enslaved community must be gleaned from the perspective of white people. Enslaved people are found in tax lists, bills of sale, deeds, wills and estate papers, ledgers, and account records, and legal files, as well as in the correspondence of the white family members and overseers who wrote about their health and well-being, comportment, and work. Many of these records provide names, ages, family relationships, geographic locations, and scattered information about labor, medical care, and provisioning.
Although the papers date from 1757 to 1978, the bulk of the material pertains to the period 1800 to 1890. Material from the 18th century, while not plentiful, does provide documentation of Richard Bennehan's mercantile enterprises in Orange County, N.C., and of the beginning of the enslaved communities associated with Cameron and Bennehan plantations. Material from the 20th century chiefly deals with the settlement of Paul C. Cameron's estate. The only significant gap in the papers that document the Cameron's activities from 1800 to 1890 is material dating from the Civil War. Anne Ruffin Cameron and Bennehan Cameron burned Paul C. Cameron's papers for these years, apparently to destroy evidence of his support of the Confederacy.
The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, financial and legal documents, and volumes. In addition there are speeches, writings, printed material, pictures, and miscellaneous other types of personal papers.
This collection is a rich source of information on a number of topics. Series 1. Correspondence provides many details about familial relationships and social behavior of a white Southern plantation family made wealthy by enslaved labor. The harsh conditions of plantation life, notably isolation and disease, especially the impact of the latter in the enslaved community, are also well documented. There is significantly more information about Cameron and Bennehan men than about Cameron and Bennehan women, particularly in material from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. However, after about 1830 the women are represented in correspondence more fully, particularly by Anne Ruffin Cameron and Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai. In addition to Bennehan and Cameron family correspondence, there are also some Mordecai family letters and Nash family letters in Series 1. Enslaved people who were in close proximity to the white family members because of their household roles or skilled labor are often mentioned by name in the letters of family members; overseers' letters more frequently mention enslaved people working in the fields or with livestock. Almost all letters exchanged within the immediate families of Duncan and Rebecca Bennehan Cameron and Paul C. and Anne Ruffin Cameron include mention of enslaved people; only a fraction of these letters are highlighted in this finding aid.
Series 2. Family Financial and Legal Papers and Series 6. Volumes contain extensive information about the Stagville Plantation and Fairntosh Plantation (sometimes called "Home House"), as well as other plantations and family homes in Orange County, Person County, Wake County, and Granville County, and in Greene County, Miss., and Tunica County, Ala. These materials provide information about the enslaved people on the plantations, including their names, ages, the terms of their being trafficked between owners, where they worked, what labor they performed, what provisions they were given, and their medical care. There are also minute details about crops, stock, tools, buildings, and management of these lucrative enterprises. These papers also document the transportation and marketing of the agricultural products of the plantations.
Series 2 and Series 6 also provide much information about the Stagville Store, other stores, sawmills, grist mills, and blacksmith shops located on the Cameron lands.
Series 3. Duncan Cameron's Legal Papers provide extensive documentation of Duncan Cameron's legal career from 1797 until about 1817 as an attorney and superior court judge. Enslaved people are also found in these files where they are represented as claimed or contested property.
The papers also contain some information about the birth and development of important institutions in North Carolina: the State Bank, the University of North Carolina, the North Carolina State Militia, the Episcopal Church, railroads, and state government, in all of which the Camerons were actively involved.
Duncan Cameron's involvement in the State Bank of North Carolina, the Bank of the State of North Carolina, and other banks is documented extensively in Series 1 and Subseries 5.2. Bank Material. Richard Bennehan, Duncan Cameron, and Paul C. Cameron all served on the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina. Letters from University presidents and other board members can be found in Series 1. Documentation of monetary contributions to the University are in Subseries 2.1. Accounts. Duncan Cameron's service as a Major General in the North Carolina State Militia after the War of 1812 is documented in Subseries 5.3. The Camerons' involvement in the development of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina in the early nineteenth century is documented by letters from bishops and others in Series 1; by receipts, deeds, and other documents in Series 2; and by printed material in Subseries 5.4. Church Material. Papers pertaining to the North Carolina Railroad and other railroads are found in Subseries 2.1. Accounts and Subseries 5.9. Railroads. Correspondence pertaining to the railroads is in Series 1. Duncan Cameron's service in the House of Commons and State Senate representing Orange County is documented in Series 1 and in Subseries 5.8. Politics.
The original order of this collection is unknown except for some material in an addition received in 1983. That material is now located in Subseries 2.6. Estate Papers and remains much as it arrived.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Correspondence, 1757-1935 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological.
Business and personal correspondence of the Bennehan and Cameron families, particularly of Richard Bennehan (1743-1825), Duncan Cameron (1777-1853), and Paul C. Cameron (1808-1891). There is some correspondence of Thomas D. Bennehan (1782-1847), Rebecca Bennehan Cameron (1778-1843), Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai (1811-1886), and Anne Ruffin Cameron (1814-1897). Some Nash family and Mordecai family correspondence is included among the Cameron letters.
There are only a few letters written by enslaved people. Information about members of the enslaved community must largely be gleaned from the perspective of white family members and overseers who frequently wrote about the health and well-being, comportment, and work of enslaved people. Almost all letters exchanged within the immediate families of Duncan and Rebecca Bennehan Cameron and Paul C. and Anne Ruffin Cameron include mention of enslaved people; only a fraction of these letters are highlighted in this finding aid.
The series is divided into eight subseries. The first six subseries divide the Cameron correspondence which spans 180 years into smaller time periods during which one or more of the Bennehan or Cameron men were principle correspondents. The last two subseries contain undated letters: subseries 1.7 contains undated letters written by members of the Cameron family; subseries 1.8 contains letters written by non family members.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists revised correspondence series descriptions (1757-1866) to include more information about the community of people enslaved by the Cameron, Bennehan, and Mordecai families. Many of the individual letters highlighted as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction" in this series were identified by Jean Bradley Anderson in Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina (Durham, N.C.: Historic Preservation Commission of Durham, 1985) and by Sydney Nathans in To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2012). Many more records of enslavement exist throughout Series 1. Correspondence but have not yet been identified in this finding aid.
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Subseries 1.1. Correspondence, 1757-1796 and undated.
Business and personal correspondence of Richard Bennehan, his son Thomas D. Bennehan, his daughter Rebecca Bennehan, and his wife Mary Amis Bennehan. During the years covered by this subseries, Richard Bennehan was in business with William Johnston, and then in business for himself. The material in this subseries predates the arrival of Duncan Cameron in North Carolina.
The bulk of this material consists of business letters to Richard Bennehan from his partner William Johnston of Hillsborough, N.C., with whom Bennehan owned the Little River Store, and from Bennehan's factor and former employer Edward Stabler of Petersburg, Va. Among Bennehan's other business correspondents are merchants David Buchanan of Petersburg, Va., John Alston of Glasgow, Scotland, James Gibson of Suffolk, Va., and Andrew Miller of Halifax, N.C.
Letters chiefly focus on various aspects of the mercantile business, particularly on market conditions, transportation problems, counterfeit money, and prices for tobacco, sugar, rum, and salt. In these letters, there are some passing references made to the War of Regulation, the American Revolution, the Constitution, and the economy. A letter, 9 June 1771, from William Johnston anticipates Governor Tryon's arrival in Hillsborough after the Battle of Alamance. A letter, 15 February 1776, alludes to Bennehan's participation in the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge. William Johnston's death in 1785 is documented, as is Bennehan's subsequent purchase of the Stagville property and building of the Stagville Store in 1787.
Business letters to Richard Bennehan written after 1789 chiefly consist of letters from Ebenezer Stott of Petersburg, Va., who was Bennehan's primary factor during the 1790s. These letters frequently include statements of account, in addition to the usual discussions of market conditions and news.
Among Bennehan's other correspondents during this period are Jesse Benton, William Richardson Davie, Thomas Hart, Allen Jones, Nathaniel Rochester, and Samuel Ashe. A letter, 13 July 1796, from Ashe documents Bennehan's gift of books to the library at the University of North Carolina.
Thomas D. Bennehan's correspondence with his parents Richard and Mary Amis Bennehan and his sister Rebecca date from 1795, when Thomas left for Chapel Hill, N.C., to attend the preparatory school at the University, to 1801, when he graduated from UNC.
The letters between Thomas and Rebecca are particularly numerous. There is only one letter written by Mary Amis Bennehan to Thomas, but there are frequent exchanges between father and son. There are also several letters to Thomas from his classmates, including his cousin Thomas Gale Amis.
There are few letters written to Bennehan in Virginia before he moved to North Carolina in 1768. There are no letters from Bennehan's relatives except for letters from his wife's brother Thomas Amis of Halifax County, N.C.
For financial material pertaining to the Little River Store, the Stagville Store, and the enslaved labor and land that Bennehan purchased with his store profits, see Subseries 2.1., 2.9., 6.1., 6.3., and 6.7.
For other documentation of Richard Bennehan's contributions to the University of North Carolina, see Subseries 2.1.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists revised correspondence series descriptions (1757-1866) to include more information about the community of people enslaved by the Cameron, Bennehan, and Mordecai families. Many of the individual letters highlighted as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction" in this series were identified by Jean Bradley Anderson in Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina (Durham, N.C.: Historic Preservation Commission of Durham, 1985) and by Sydney Nathans in To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2012). Many more records of enslavement exist throughout Series 1. Correspondence but have not yet been identified in this finding aid.
| Folder 1 |
Correspondence, 1757-1768 |
| Folder 2 |
Correspondence, 1769 |
Folder 3-5
Folder 3Folder 4Folder 5 |
Correspondence, 1770 |
Folder 6-8
Folder 6Folder 7Folder 8 |
Correspondence, 1771Folder 8: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 9-12
Folder 9Folder 10Folder 11Folder 12 |
Correspondence, 1772 |
Folder 13-17
Folder 13Folder 14Folder 15Folder 16Folder 17 |
Correspondence, 1773 |
Folder 18-21
Folder 18Folder 19Folder 20Folder 21 |
Correspondence, 1774 |
Folder 22-24
Folder 22Folder 23Folder 24 |
Correspondence, 1775 |
| Folder 25 |
Correspondence, 1776Records of enslavement:
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| Folder 26 |
Correspondence, 1777-1778 |
| Folder 27 |
Correspondence, 1779 |
| Folder 28 |
Correspondence, 1780-1781 |
| Folder 29 |
Correspondence, 1782 |
Folder 30-31
Folder 30Folder 31 |
Correspondence, 1783 |
| Folder 32 |
Correspondence, 1784Records of enslavement:
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Folder 33-35
Folder 33Folder 34Folder 35 |
Correspondence, 1785 |
Folder 36-37
Folder 36Folder 37 |
Correspondence, 1786 |
Folder 38-40
Folder 38Folder 39Folder 40 |
Correspondence, 1787 |
Folder 41-43
Folder 41Folder 42Folder 43 |
Correspondence, 1788 |
Folder 44-46
Folder 44Folder 45Folder 46 |
Correspondence, 1789 |
Folder 47-49
Folder 47Folder 48Folder 49 |
Correspondence, 1790 |
Folder 50-51
Folder 50Folder 51 |
Correspondence, 1791 |
Folder 52-54
Folder 52Folder 53Folder 54 |
Correspondence, 1792 |
Folder 55-56
Folder 55Folder 56 |
Correspondence, 1793 |
Folder 57-58
Folder 57Folder 58 |
Correspondence, 1794 |
Folder 59-61
Folder 59Folder 60Folder 61 |
Correspondence, 1795 |
Folder 62-64
Folder 62Folder 63Folder 64 |
Correspondence, 1796 |
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Subseries 1.2. Correspondence, 1797-1825.
The bulk of material in this subseries is from the period when Duncan Cameron and Richard Bennehan were in business together. The earliest material in this subseries actually predates Duncan Cameron's marriage to Rebecca Bennehan and his business dealings with her father. The subseries ends with the death of Richard Bennehan.
1797-1799
Chiefly business letters to Richard Bennehan, with some business and personal letters of Duncan Cameron. Richard Bennehan corresponded frequently with his factor Ebenezer Stott of Petersburg, Va., during these years. There are also occasional letters from other merchants, as well as from Bennehan's friends, William Richardson Davie, Jesse Benton, and Samuel Ashe.
Throughout these years there are numerous letters between Richard Bennehan and his son Thomas who was studying at the University of North Carolina. There are also letters between Thomas D. Bennehan and his sister Rebecca, who remained at home. These letters both provide information about student life in the early days of the University, and suggest the character of the Bennehans' family ties.
Letters written to Duncan Cameron are from members of his family in Virginia, and from clients and associates. There are letters from Duncan Cameron's father John Cameron, his brothers John and William, and his sisters Jean and Anna, all of whom lived in Lunenberg, Va. Duncan Cameron's sister, Mary Read Anderson, and her husband Daniel Anderson of Petersburg, Va., were frequent correspondents, as was Duncan Cameron's uncle Ewen Cameron of Franklin, Tenn. Among Duncan Cameron's other correspondents are William Richardson Davie, Archibald D. Murphey, James Turner, John Hogg, John Lenox, and Richard Henderson.
Some scattered correspondence between Frederick Nash, who was Cameron's cousin, and Nash's mother Mary Witherspoon is included. During this period Frederick Nash attended Princeton University and wrote to his mother in New Bern, N.C.
For further documentation of Duncan Cameron's legal practice see Series 3 and Subseries 6.10.
1800-1809
Chiefly letters to Richard Bennehan and Duncan Cameron, with some letters of Thomas D. Bennehan and Rebecca Bennehan Cameron. Included are drafts or copies of some of Duncan Cameron's outgoing letters.
Richard Bennehan's correspondents include his factors in Petersburg, Va., particularly Ebenezer Stott, and his friends and associates William Richardson Davie, Robert Williams, Joseph Caldwell, and Richard Henderson. There are no letters from Bennehan's Virginia relatives except for his nephew William Bennehan, who moved to North Carolina in the 1790s and worked at the Stagville Store and then at the store at Fishdam Ford until his death in 1806. There are several letters from members of the Amis family of Halifax and Northampton counties, N.C. The Camerons had received 25 enslaved people from the Amis family. Their letters, however, mostly pertain to breeding horses, which was of particular interest to the Amises because they owned Sir Archie, a stud horse who had been a star racing thoroughbred.
After Richard's daughter Rebecca married Duncan Cameron in 1803, there are many letters to Richard Bennehan from Cameron. Beginning in 1806, these letters document the lucrative partnership between Duncan Cameron and his father-in-law Richard Bennehan and brother-in-law Thomas D. Bennehan, which combined their lands and stores into a thriving business. Rebecca's letters to her husband Duncan frequently mention enslaved people by name and the general health of the enslaved community. Rebecca was most likely to report on enslaved people who worked at the house or who had special proximity to the white family as delivery drivers, messengers, and foreman.
Duncan Cameron's correspondents included clients from his legal practice, and friends, especially William Richardson Davie, James Webb, Joseph Gales, Archibald Murphey, and Willie P. Mangum. Cameron's family in Virginia were regular correspondents. There are many letters from his father John Cameron of Lunenberg, Va., and from his sisters Mary Read Anderson and Jean Syme of Petersburg, Va. These letters document Duncan Cameron's support of his younger brothers William and John Cameron who were sent to the University of North Carolina by Duncan and then employed by him in Hillsborough, N.C., as clerks in his law office and clerks in the store in Hillsborough run by Cameron's stepnephew George Anderson. There are also letters regularly from Richard Bennehan and Thomas D. Bennehan.
In 1800 and 1801, there are letters from Thomas D. Bennehan to his parents and to sister Rebecca written while Thomas was at the University of North Carolina. Throughout the decade there are letters to Thomas D. Bennehan from his cousin Thomas Gale Amis who was an orphan and had been sent to the University with his cousin by Richard Bennehan. After Thomas Gale Amis's graduation, he worked on merchant ships in the West Indies. According to Jean Anderson in her book Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina (1985), Amis may have been sent away because he was in love with Rebecca. His letters to Thomas D. Bennehan richly describe Guadeloupe, Santo Domingo, and other Caribbean ports, and his perceptions of slavery and the rebellion of enslaved people in the West Indies.
1810-1819
Chiefly letters to Duncan Cameron from members of his family, business partners, clients, factors, and friends. There are a few of Duncan Cameron's outgoing letters to members of his family and scattered manuscript copies of outgoing business letters. Some correspondence of Richard Bennehan, Thomas D. Bennehan, and Rebecca Bennehan Cameron is also included. In addition, there are scattered letters to Duncan Cameron's cousin Frederick Nash from clients, letters to Nash's wife Mary from her sisters, and some correspondence between brothers Samuel Mordecai and George W. Mordecai.
Duncan Cameron's most frequent correspondents during this period were his siblings, Mary Read Anderson of Petersburg, Va., William Cameron of Petersburg, John Adams Cameron of Fayetteville, N.C., and Jean Syme of Petersburg. Mary Read Anderson wrote even more often during this period because her husband Daniel Anderson died, making Duncan Cameron the executor of his will and the guardian of his sons, William and Walker Anderson.
William Cameron and Samuel Snow, who were Duncan Cameron's partners in a mercantile business in Petersburg, wrote frequently to Duncan Cameron, keeping him abreast of market conditions. John Adams Cameron, who depended on his brother for financial aid after a debilitating wound in the War of 1812, was a frequent correspondent.
Duncan Cameron's brother Thomas Cameron of Pennsylvania, and his parents John and Mary Owen Cameron of Lunenberg, Va., wrote to Duncan occasionally. There are several letters from Duncan Cameron's cousin, or perhaps uncle, Ewen Cameron of Franklin, Tenn. Beginning in 1818, there are occasional letters from Duncan Cameron's nephew Walker Anderson who was attending The University of North Carolina. There are also several letters from Frederick Nash.
Rebecca Bennehan Cameron also received letters from Duncan's family. In 1817 and 1818, she also received regular letters from her daughter Mary Anne Ruffin Cameron who attended Mordecai Female Seminary in Warrenton, N.C. Notes from Mary Anne's teachers about her deportment and scholastic progress often appear on the backs of Mary Anne's letters.
Duncan Cameron's legal practice and subsequent appointment to a Superior Court judgeship frequently took him away from home to county courts across North Carolina. Richard and Thomas D. Bennehan wrote to Duncan when he was away, consulting with him about business matters involving their partnership. There are many letters from Rebecca to Duncan during these absences keeping her husband informed about the health of the family and of the enslaved community at Stagville where disease could quickly overtake many people. The enslaved people Rebecca mentioned by name most likely worked at the house or had special proximity to the white family as delivery drivers, messengers, and foremen.
Very little of Richard and Thomas D. Bennehan's correspondence is preserved for this period. There are a few letters exchanged between the two when one was away on business, or when, in 1813, Richard was taking a water cure in Warm Springs, Va. Richard Bennehan's nephew Richard Bennehan wrote occasionally from Richmond County, Va. Several members of the Amis family wrote to Bennehan, mostly concerning horse breeding, especially about the famous stud horse and thoroughbred racer Sir Archie. Thomas D. Bennehan and Rebecca Bennehan Cameron received some letters from their cousins Frances Goodwin Smith and Mary Phillips.
In addition to Duncan Cameron's voluminous family correspondence, there is also substantial correspondence dealing with his legal practice and his various business partnerships. There are many letters from mercantile businesses on the eastern seaboard that employed Cameron as lawyer primarily to collect debts on their behalf. There are also letters from merchants/factors from whom Duncan Cameron bought goods to stock stores he owned and to whom he supplied tobacco and wheat grown on the Bennehan Cameron lands or that he had accepted as payment at the Bennehan Cameron stores. The most frequent merchant correspondents for this period are Rogers and Winthrop of New York, Ebenezer Stott of Petersburg, Roger Lamberth of New York, Pattison Hartshorne of Philadelphia, McEwen, Hale, and Davidson of Philadelphia, John MacMillian of Fayetteville, John Hogg of Wilmington, N.C., Edward Lyde of New York, Robert Walker of Petersburg, W. Haxell of Petersburg, John Thompkins of Richmond, and John and James Dunlop of England. There are also letters from Sam Yarborough who ran the Stagville Store and from Sam Dickins, a plantation overseer.
There are also many letters from other clients for whom Duncan Cameron did legal work, as well as from other lawyers with whom Cameron worked. Extensive correspondence concerns the settlement of the estate of Absolum Tatum of Nashville, Tenn. Cameron worked on this case with Abram Maury, a Nashville lawyer, and Samuel Goodwin, comptroller general of North Carolina.
Duncan Cameron was extensively involved in the establishment of the State Bank of North Carolina during this period. He corresponded regularly with bank officers and the officers of other North Carolina banks. Among his correspondents were William Polk, William H. Haywood, John Haywood, William Boylan, Peter Browne, and J. W. Wright.
Various North Carolina senators and representatives in the United States Congress wrote to Duncan Cameron periodically informing him of legislation dealing with trade, and giving him news about the embargo, the War of 1812, and the Treaty of Paris. There are letters to Cameron from a number of individuals in Washington, including James Turner, Archibald McBryde, William Gaston, James Culpepper, and Richard Stanford.
During this period, Duncan Cameron was a representative in the North Carolina House of Commons and Senate. In 1819, when he became a senator, he became chairman of the influential Internal Improvement Committee originally led by Cameron's friend Archibald Murphey. Correspondence from this period, especially letters from Archibald Murphey, documents Cameron's involvement in state politics.
From 1814 to 1816, when Cameron served as a major general in the North Carolina Militia, he received letters from Robert Williams, the adjutant general, dealing with militia matters. Other correspondents include Richard Henderson, Paul Carrington, James Webb, John Devereaux, Thomas B. Littlejohn, Walter Alves, W. G. Grove, William Norwood, and Thomas Ruffin.
For more information on the State Bank of North Carolina, see Subseries 5.2.
For more documentation relating to Duncan Cameron's service in the Militia see Subseries 5.3.
For more material relating to Duncan Cameron's legal practice, see Series 3 and Subseries 6.10.
For documentation of the Bennehans' and Camerons' financial relationships with their factors, see Subseries 2.1 and 2.9.
For further documentation of Duncan Cameron's participation in the Committee for Internal Improvement, see Subseries 5.8.
1820-1825
Chiefly business and family letters written to Duncan Cameron, and some letters addressed to Richard Bennehan and to Thomas D. Bennehan. A few letters to Rebecca Bennehan Cameron and her daughter Mary Anne Ruffin Cameron from family members are included. Correspondence between George W. Mordecai and his sister Rachel Mordecai Lazarus of Wilmington, N.C., is also included.
Duncan Cameron's siblings Mary Read Anderson, Jean Syme, John Adams Cameron, William Cameron, and Thomas Cameron wrote to him frequently, communicating family news and asking his advice. There are occasional letters from Cameron's mother Anne Owen Cameron, his uncle or cousin Ewen Cameron of Franklin, Tenn., his stepnephew George Anderson, his nephew Walker Anderson, and his nephew William Anderson while he was attending the University of North Carolina from 1822 to 1826.
There are letters from Duncan Cameron's son Paul C. Cameron to Paul's sister Mary Anne and to his parents from the various schools he attended, including the University of North Carolina from which he was expelled in 1824, and Partridge's Academy (1825 and 1826). Included are letters from Paul's instructors concerning his progress in school and his deportment; from John Rudd who ran a school in Elizabethtown, Conn.; and from Captain Partridge concerning Paul's brother Thomas who had an intellectual disability.
Duncan Cameron's involvement in the Episcopal Church is well documented. He received regular correspondence from General Theological Seminary in New York on whose board of trustees he served. He corresponded with Bishop John Ravenscroft about various church matters. Ravenscroft and Cameron were also involved in business dealings together. Cameron was also a vice president of the American Bible Society and the American Sunday School Society during the 1820s and received regular correspondence from the two organizations.
During this period Duncan Cameron was involved in the State Bank of North Carolina. He corresponded with J. W. Wright of the Bank of Cape Fear, Samuel Haywood of the Bank of New Bern, William H. Haywood and Peter Browne of the State Bank, and John Brockenbrough and William Dandridge of the Bank of Virginia.
The Bennehans and Camerons corresponded with many merchants who served as their commission merchants and for whom Duncan Cameron collected debts. Among these merchant firms are Ebenezer Stott of Petersburg, Va., Robert Hamilton of Petersburg, James Davidson of Petersburg, Charles C. Watson of Philadelphia, Hamilton and Donaldson of New York, Duncan Thompson of Fayetteville, N.C., and John Taylor of Wilmington.
Other frequent correspondents of Duncan Cameron, Richard Bennehan, and Thomas D. Bennehan from the 1820s include Thomas Ruffin, Archibald Murphey, Richard Henderson, Dr. James Webb, Walter Alves, William Polk, William Boylan, Thomas B. Littlejohn, Joseph Gales, James Mebane, Joseph B. Skinner, William Norwood, Joseph Caldwell, Elisha Mitchell, Charles Manley, Samuel Yarborough, Thomas Devereaux, John Hogg, James Latta, Samuel Snow, and Dr. Lenco Mitchell. There is a letter in 1823 from Henry Clay recommending a Virginia lawyer to work in North Carolina.
For more documentation of the Bennehans' and Camerons' dealings with their factors, see Subseries 2.1.
For more information on the schooling of the Cameron children see Subseries 4.3, 5.1, and 6.12.
For further documentation of Duncan Cameron's involvement in the State Bank of North Carolina, see Subseries 5.2.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists revised correspondence series descriptions (1757-1866) to include more information about the community of people enslaved by the Cameron, Bennehan, and Mordecai families. Many of the individual letters highlighted as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction" in this series were identified by Jean Bradley Anderson in Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina (Durham, N.C.: Historic Preservation Commission of Durham, 1985) and by Sydney Nathans in To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2012). Many more records of enslavement exist throughout Series 1. Correspondence but have not yet been identified in this finding aid.
Folder 65-67
Folder 65Folder 66Folder 67 |
Correspondence, 1797 |
Folder 68-72
Folder 68Folder 69Folder 70Folder 71Folder 72 |
Correspondence, 1798 |
Folder 73-83
Folder 73Folder 74Folder 75Folder 76Folder 77Folder 78Folder 79Folder 80Folder 81Folder 82Folder 83 |
Correspondence, 1799 |
Folder 84-97
Folder 84Folder 85Folder 86Folder 87Folder 88Folder 89Folder 90Folder 91Folder 92Folder 93Folder 94Folder 95Folder 96Folder 97 |
Correspondence, 1800 |
Folder 98-121
Folder 98Folder 99Folder 100Folder 101Folder 102Folder 103Folder 104Folder 105Folder 106Folder 107Folder 108Folder 109Folder 110Folder 111Folder 112Folder 113Folder 114Folder 115Folder 116Folder 117Folder 118Folder 119Folder 120Folder 121 |
Correspondence, 1801Folder 120: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 122-148
Folder 122Folder 123Folder 124Folder 125Folder 126Folder 127Folder 128Folder 129Folder 130Folder 131Folder 132Folder 133Folder 134Folder 135Folder 136Folder 137Folder 138Folder 139Folder 140Folder 141Folder 142Folder 143Folder 144Folder 145Folder 146Folder 147Folder 148 |
Correspondence, 1802Folder 128: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 149-170
Folder 149Folder 150Folder 151Folder 152Folder 153Folder 154Folder 155Folder 156Folder 157Folder 158Folder 159Folder 160Folder 161Folder 162Folder 163Folder 164Folder 165Folder 166Folder 167Folder 168Folder 169Folder 170 |
Correspondence, 1803Folder 159: Records of enslavement:
Folder 161: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 171-201
Folder 171Folder 172Folder 173Folder 174Folder 175Folder 176Folder 177Folder 178Folder 179Folder 180Folder 181Folder 182Folder 183Folder 184Folder 185Folder 186Folder 187Folder 188Folder 189Folder 190Folder 191Folder 192Folder 193Folder 194Folder 195Folder 196Folder 197Folder 198Folder 199Folder 200Folder 201 |
Correspondence, 1803Folder 175: Records of enslavement:
Folder 185: Records of enslavement:
Folder 186: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 202-230
Folder 202Folder 203Folder 204Folder 205Folder 206Folder 207Folder 208Folder 209Folder 210Folder 211Folder 212Folder 213Folder 214Folder 215Folder 216Folder 217Folder 218Folder 219Folder 220Folder 221Folder 222Folder 223Folder 224Folder 225Folder 226Folder 227Folder 228Folder 229Folder 230 |
Correspondence, 1805 |
Folder 231-258
Folder 231Folder 232Folder 233Folder 234Folder 235Folder 236Folder 237Folder 238Folder 239Folder 240Folder 241Folder 242Folder 243Folder 244Folder 245Folder 246Folder 247Folder 248Folder 249Folder 250Folder 251Folder 252Folder 253Folder 254Folder 255Folder 256Folder 257Folder 258 |
Correspondence, 1806Folder 232: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 259-276
Folder 259Folder 260Folder 261Folder 262Folder 263Folder 264Folder 265Folder 266Folder 267Folder 268Folder 269Folder 270Folder 271Folder 272Folder 273Folder 274Folder 275Folder 276 |
Correspondence, 1807Folder 262: Records of enslavement:
Folder 263: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 277-292
Folder 277Folder 278Folder 279Folder 280Folder 281Folder 282Folder 283Folder 284Folder 285Folder 286Folder 287Folder 288Folder 289Folder 290Folder 291Folder 292 |
Correspondence, 1808 |
Folder 293-301
Folder 293Folder 294Folder 295Folder 296Folder 297Folder 298Folder 299Folder 300Folder 301 |
Correspondence, 1809 |
Folder 302-313
Folder 302Folder 303Folder 304Folder 305Folder 306Folder 307Folder 308Folder 309Folder 310Folder 311Folder 312Folder 313 |
Correspondence, 1810Folder 306: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 314-330
Folder 314Folder 315Folder 316Folder 317Folder 318Folder 319Folder 320Folder 321Folder 322Folder 323Folder 324Folder 325Folder 326Folder 327Folder 328Folder 329Folder 330 |
Correspondence, 1811Folder 324: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 331-351
Folder 331Folder 332Folder 333Folder 334Folder 335Folder 336Folder 337Folder 338Folder 339Folder 340Folder 341Folder 342Folder 343Folder 344Folder 345Folder 346Folder 347Folder 348Folder 349Folder 350Folder 351 |
Correspondence, 1812 |
Folder 352-374
Folder 352Folder 353Folder 354Folder 355Folder 356Folder 357Folder 358Folder 359Folder 360Folder 361Folder 362Folder 363Folder 364Folder 365Folder 366Folder 367Folder 368Folder 369Folder 370Folder 371Folder 372Folder 373Folder 374 |
Correspondence, 1813Folder 366: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 375-398
Folder 375Folder 376Folder 377Folder 378Folder 379Folder 380Folder 381Folder 382Folder 383Folder 384Folder 385Folder 386Folder 387Folder 388Folder 389Folder 390Folder 391Folder 392Folder 393Folder 394Folder 395Folder 396Folder 397Folder 398 |
Correspondence, 1814Folder 378: Records of enslavement:
Folder 393: Records of enslavement:
Folder 394: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 399-418
Folder 399Folder 400Folder 401Folder 402Folder 403Folder 404Folder 405Folder 406Folder 407Folder 408Folder 409Folder 410Folder 411Folder 412Folder 413Folder 414Folder 415Folder 416Folder 417Folder 418 |
Correspondence, 1815Folder 406: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 419-430
Folder 419Folder 420Folder 421Folder 422Folder 423Folder 424Folder 425Folder 426Folder 427Folder 428Folder 429Folder 430 |
Correspondence, 1816Folder 421: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 431-444
Folder 431Folder 432Folder 433Folder 434Folder 435Folder 436Folder 437Folder 438Folder 439Folder 440Folder 441Folder 442Folder 443Folder 444 |
Correspondence, 1817 |
Folder 445-460
Folder 445Folder 446Folder 447Folder 448Folder 449Folder 450Folder 451Folder 452Folder 453Folder 454Folder 455Folder 456Folder 457Folder 458Folder 459Folder 460 |
Correspondence, 1818Folder 459: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 461-476
Folder 461Folder 462Folder 463Folder 464Folder 465Folder 466Folder 467Folder 468Folder 469Folder 470Folder 471Folder 472Folder 473Folder 474Folder 475Folder 476 |
Correspondence, 1819Folder 473: Records of enslavement:
Folder 474: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 477-488
Folder 477Folder 478Folder 479Folder 480Folder 481Folder 482Folder 483Folder 484Folder 485Folder 486Folder 487Folder 488 |
Correspondence, 1820 |
Folder 489-507
Folder 489Folder 490Folder 491Folder 492Folder 493Folder 494Folder 495Folder 496Folder 497Folder 498Folder 499Folder 500Folder 501Folder 502Folder 503Folder 504Folder 505Folder 506Folder 507 |
Correspondence, 1821 |
Folder 508-524
Folder 508Folder 509Folder 510Folder 511Folder 512Folder 513Folder 514Folder 515Folder 516Folder 517Folder 518Folder 519Folder 520Folder 521Folder 522Folder 523Folder 524 |
Correspondence, 1822 |
Folder 525-540
Folder 525Folder 526Folder 527Folder 528Folder 529Folder 530Folder 531Folder 532Folder 533Folder 534Folder 535Folder 536Folder 537Folder 538Folder 539Folder 540 |
Correspondence, 1823Folder 533: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 541-559
Folder 541Folder 542Folder 543Folder 544Folder 545Folder 546Folder 547Folder 548Folder 549Folder 550Folder 551Folder 552Folder 553Folder 554Folder 555Folder 556Folder 557Folder 558Folder 559 |
Correspondence, 1824 |
Folder 560-580
Folder 560Folder 561Folder 562Folder 563Folder 564Folder 565Folder 566Folder 567Folder 568Folder 569Folder 570Folder 571Folder 572Folder 573Folder 574Folder 575Folder 576Folder 577Folder 578Folder 579Folder 580 |
Correspondence, 1825 |
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Subseries 1.3. Correspondence, 1826-1853.
This subseries chiefly contains letters written to Duncan Cameron, with some letters to Thomas D. Bennehan and other family members. The subseries ends with Duncan Cameron's death.
1826-1829
Chiefly business and family letters written to Duncan Cameron. There are some letters addressed to Thomas D. Bennehan. A few letters to Rebecca Bennehan Cameron and her daughter Mary Anne Ruffin Cameron from family members are included. Correspondence between George W. Mordecai and his sister Rachel Mordecai Lazarus of Wilmington, N.C., is also included.
There are many letters from Duncan Cameron's siblings Mary Read Anderson, Jean Syme, John Adams Cameron, William Cameron, and Thomas Cameron who wrote to him frequently communicating family news and asking his advice. There are occasional letters from Cameron's uncle or cousin Ewen Cameron of Franklin, Tenn., his step nephew George Anderson, and his nephews Walker Anderson and William Anderson.
There are letters from Duncan Cameron's son Paul C. Cameron at Washington College (now Trinity College) in Hartford, Conn., from 1826 until Paul's graduation in 1829. Included are letters from Paul's instructors concerning his progress in school and his deportment. There are letters from Captain Partridge concerning Paul's brother Thomas who had an intellectual disability and attended Partridge's school.
Duncan Cameron's involvement in the Episcopal Church during the late 1820s is well documented. Correspondents include Bishop John Ravenscroft, Bishop Brownell, Rev. William Mercer Green, and Rev. Richard Mason. Duncan Cameron received regular correspondence from General Theological Seminary in New York on whose board of trustees he served. He was also a vice president of the American Bible Society and the American Sunday School Society throughout the 1820s and received regular correspondence from the two organizations.
In the late 1820s, Duncan Cameron became more deeply involved in the State Bank of North Carolina, and in 1829 he was made president of the bank. He corresponded frequently with other officers and stockholders in the State Bank, as well as with officials of other banks in North Carolina and Virginia. Correspondents included William Haywood, William Boylan, John Haywood, and Peter Browne of the State Bank. Cameron also corresponded with J. W. Wright of the Bank of Cape Fear, Samuel Haywood of the Bank of New Bern, and John Brockenbrough and William Dandridge of the Bank of Virginia.
Duncan Cameron and Thomas D. Bennehan corresponded with many merchants who served as their commission merchants and for whom Duncan Cameron collected debts. Among these merchant firms are Ebenezer Stott of Petersburg, Va., Thomas and Robert Dunn of Petersburg, Robert Hamilton of Petersburg, James Davidson of Petersburg, Charles C. Watson of Philadelphia, Hamilton and Donaldson of New York, Duncan Thompson of Fayetteville, N.C., John Huske of Fayetteville, and John Taylor of Wilmington.
Other frequent correspondents of Duncan Cameron, from 1826 to 1829, include Thomas Ruffin, William H. Haywood Jr., Archibald Murphey, Richard Henderson, Dr. James Webb, Walter Alves, William Polk, William Boylan, John Haywood, Thomas B. Littlejohn, John Buford, Samuel Ashe, Joseph Gales, Dr. Joseph Umstead, W. P. Mangum, William Cain, James Mebane, William Kirkland, Joseph B. Skinner, John Hawkins, Gavin Hogg, William Norwood, Joseph Caldwell, Elisha Mitchell, Charles Manley, Samuel Yarborough, and Dr. Lenco Mitchell. There is a letter from Henry Clay in 1827, referring to an earlier recommendation he made in 1823.
For more documentation of the dealings of Thomas D. Bennehan and Duncan Cameron with their factors, see Subseries 2.1.
For more information on the schooling of the Cameron children, see Subseries 4.3, 5.1, and 6.12.
For further documentation of Duncan Cameron's involvement in the State Bank of North Carolina, see Subseries 5.2.
1830-1839
Chiefly letters to Duncan Cameron from business associates, friends, and family. There are also some letters to Thomas D. Bennehan, some letters to Paul C. Cameron, some to Anne Ruffin Cameron, and letters to other Cameron women from aunts, cousins, and their governess Mary McLean Bryant. Almost all letters exchanged within the immediate families of Duncan Cameron and Paul C. and Anne Ruffin Cameron include mention of enslaved people who are identified by name. Only a fraction of these letters are highlighted in this finding aid.
Duncan Cameron's sisters Mary Read Anderson and Jean Syme of Petersburg, Va., and brother John Adams Cameron of Fayetteville, N.C., wrote to Duncan often. John Adams Cameron also wrote from Vera Cruz, Mexico, where he was serving as United States consul. William and Walker Anderson, Duncan Cameron's nephews, also wrote to him frequently. During this period, Rebecca Bennehan Cameron and her daughters received frequent letters from Mary Read Anderson, Jean Syme, and many cousins relating family news. Included are a few of Paul C. Cameron's letters to Anne Ruffin Cameron before they married in 1832 and some of their correspondence after they married. There are letters to Anne Ruffin Cameron from her relatives, including Thomas Ruffin, Alice Ruffin, Catherine Roulhac, J. G. Roulhac, and members of the Kirkland family.
Family letters particularly document the following topics: cycles of sickness and disease that caused suffering and death in the enslaved communities between 1830 and 1835; Anne Ruffin Cameron's stillborn children in 1835 and 1836; Paul C. Cameron's dissatisfaction with law, his resignation from the bar, and his move to Fairntosh in 1837; Duncan Cameron's permanent move to Raleigh, N.C., in 1836; Duncan Cameron's daughters' struggles with tuberculosis and family trips made to various springs in search of a cure for the disease; the trip south to Charleston, S.C., and Florida in 1839 to try to cure Anne Owen Cameron; and, finally, the deaths of four of Duncan Cameron's daughters from tuberculosis.
During the 1830s Duncan Cameron was deeply involved in the Bank of the State of North Carolina. He was made president of the institution in 1834, prompting his move to Raleigh in 1836. He frequently corresponded with the officers, stockholders, and board members of the State Bank as well as with officers of other banks in North Carolina and Virginia. Among his correspondents were Charles Dewey, George Mordecai, Peter Browne, and E. P. Guion of the State Bank, Samuel Haywood of the Bank of New Bern, S. W. Wright of the Bank of Cape Fear, and an officer of the Bank of Virginia.
Duncan Cameron continued his active involvement in the Episcopal Church in North Carolina during the 1830s. His purchase of the defunct Episcopal Boys School of Raleigh, in 1833, is documented, as is the School's metamorphosis into Saint Mary's School for Girls in 1837. He continued to serve on the Board of the General Theological Seminary in New York and as vice president of the American Bible Society, receiving regular letters from these organizations. In 1831, his service as a lay delegate to the North Carolina Diocesan Convention is documented. During the 1830s, Cameron corresponded with Rev. William Mercer Green, Bishop Levi Silliman Ives, and Rev. George Freeman.
Throughout this period the plantation holdings of the Bennehans and Camerons continued to grow. There are many letters from the family's factors, particularly Keven and Hamilton of Petersburg, John Huske of Fayetteville, Hamilton and Company of New York, and Charles Watson of Philadelphia. There are letters from the millers and overseers whom the family employed to manage the enslaved people and operate the sawmills and grist mills on the rivers that ran across their land. These letters, as well as the family letters, document details about slavery, agriculture, the Stagville Store, and the post office at Stagville.
Other frequent correspondents of the Camerons and Bennehans include Dr. James Webb, Gavin Hogg, William Gaston, John Devereaux, Archibald Murphey, John D. Hawkins, W. P. Mangum, James Mebane, Joseph Gales, Thomas Littlejohn, William H. Haywood, William Boylan, William A. Graham, and John Kirkland.
For further information on banks, see Subseries 5.2.
For documentation of the sale of the Episcopal Boys School in Raleigh to Duncan Cameron, in 1833, see Subseries 2.1.
For other documentation of the family's involvement in the Episcopal Church, see Subseries 5.4.
For documentation of the financial transactions between the Camerons and Bennehans and their factors see Subseries 2.1.
1840-1849
Chiefly business and family letters to Duncan Cameron, correspondence between Duncan Cameron and Paul C. Cameron, and letters from relatives to Anne Ruffin Cameron, Margaret B. Cameron, and Mildred C. Cameron. Almost all letters exchanged within the immediate families of Duncan Cameron and Paul C. and Anne Ruffin Cameron include mention of enslaved people who are identified by name. Only a fraction of these letters are highlighted in this finding aid.
In the 1840s, Duncan Cameron continued to correspond regularly with his sisters, Mary Read Anderson (until her death in 1844) and Jean Syme (until her death in 1846). Duncan Cameron also received regular correspondence from his nephews William Anderson of Wilmington, N.C., and Walker Anderson of Pensacola, Fla.
There are some letters addressed to Thomas D. Bennehan until his death in 1847. The Cameron women corresponded extensively with their extended family. Among their correspondents were Eliza Cameron, Anna Cameron, Frances Cameron, Mary Edmunds, Eliza Nash Anderson, Anna M., Kirkland, Alice Ruffin, Mary Jones, Emma Cameron, Molly Gale, and Isabelle Cameron. Margaret B. Cameron and Mildred C. Cameron also kept in regular contact with their old governess Mary McLean Bryant.
Among the family letters are reports on the mysterious illness of Mildred Cameron and trips by her and Margaret B. Cameron to Philadelphia to seek new doctors and cures. These letters also reported on the health of both the white family and the enslaved people back at the plantation and include Cameron family members' reaction and response to the self-emancipation of Mary Walker, an enslaved nurse who accompanied the sisters on trips to Philadelphia until she escaped while there in the summer of 1848.
Duncan Cameron continued to be president of the Bank of the State of North Carolina throughout the 1840s until his resignation in 1849. He corresponded frequently with Charles Dewey and others in the banking community.
Duncan Cameron continued to serve on the Board of Trustees of General Theological Seminary in New York in the 1840s. He received letters from Rev. William Mercer Green, Bishop Otey, Rev. Richard Mason of Christ Church in Raleigh, N.C., and Rev. Aldert Smedes. There are several letters reflecting Cameron's presidency of the North Carolina Bible Society and involvement in the Scotch Relief Committee.
Paul C. Cameron and Thomas D. Bennehan managed the plantations in the 1840s. Their primary factors were Andrew Keven and Brothers of Petersburg, Va., and John Huske of Fayetteville, N.C. Paul C. Cameron's trips to Greene County, Ala., in 1844 to relocate more than 100 enslaved people to the new plantation are documented. There are regular letters from Charles Llewellyn, the overseer on the plantation in Greene County, Ala., that discuss the work he and the enslaved people, who sometimes are identified by name, had accomplished. In 1847, there is correspondence about Milton, an enslaved person who self-emancipated by running away from the Greene County plantation and was eventually apprehended. There are also letters from the overseers of plantations in North Carolina including, William Piper, William Hams, and James Colman. Overseer letters sometimes include the names of enslaved people. There are two letters written from Liberia by Virgil Bennehan, the enslaved foreman and doctor who was emancipated by Thomas D. Bennehan's will.
Other frequent correspondents include William Cain, David L. Swain, Hugh Waddell, John Devereaux, William Norwood, C. P. Mallet, William A. Graham, Cad Jones, William Polk, George Haywood, W. P. Mangum, Dr. James Webb, George Badger, Joseph B. Skinner, and William Boylan.
For documentation of the financial dealings between Paul C. Cameron and his factors see Subseries 2.1.
For more information on banking see Subseries 5.2.
1850-1853
Letters written to Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron, and Margaret B. Cameron. The family correspondence from this period documents the following: the death of Duncan Cameron in 1853, the marriage of Margaret B. Cameron to George Mordecai in 1853; the mysterious and devastating illness suffered by Mildred and the long trips to Philadelphia by Margaret, Mildred, and Harriet, an enslaved nurse sent with them; malaria epidemics in the enslaved community at Fairntosh; and Paul C. Cameron's growing interest in expanding his land holdings in the deep South and his subsequent purchase of land in Tunica County, Miss.
Although Duncan Cameron relinquished the presidency of the Bank of the State of North Carolina in 1849, he continued to correspond regularly with officers of the bank until he was close to death in 1853. There are frequent letters from George W. Mordecai, the bank's new president, and letters from Charles Dewey, the secretary of the bank. There are also letters from various family members written to Duncan Cameron. Letters from his son Paul C. Cameron frequently report on plantation matters and nearly always mention enslaved people by name.
There are many letters to Paul C. Cameron from his commission merchants, Andrew Kevan of Petersburg, Va.; C. J. Haigh and Son of Fayetteville, N.C.; and Tartt, Stewart and Co. of Mobile, Ala. There are also letters from John Webster, overseer of the plantation in Greene County, Ala. Webster often identified enslaved people by name in his letters.
There are letters to Paul C. Cameron documenting his growing interest in building railroads in North Carolina, eventually leading to his signing a contract to build a section of the North Carolina Railroad.
Among Paul C. Cameron's frequent correspondents are David L. Swain, Cad Jones, William A. Graham, Charles Phillips, Joseph Wright, V. F. Caldwell, Charles Manly, J. W. Norwood, William Mercer Green, George Freeman, Ken Rayner, and Charles Fisher.
Siblings Paul and Margaret Cameron wrote to each other frequently, giving news of family and of the enslaved community, and also corresponded with many other relatives including John W. Cameron, Walker Anderson, W. H. Ruffin, J. B. G. Roulhac, Lizzie Jones, Mary Edmunds, Fanny Roulhac, William Anderson, Robert Walker Anderson, Rowena Hines, Susan Hines, Thomas Ruffin Sr., Mary Lucas, Anna Kirkland, Eliza Thompson, Margaret Devereux, and Ellen Mordecai. Margaret, called "Maggie," also received letters from Adelaide Montmollin and Louise DeEnde who were friends Margaret made while caring for her sister Mildred "Millie" in Philadelphia; Mary McLean Bryant, who had been the Camerons' governess when Margaret and Mildred were young; and Charlotte "Lotty" Rice, who formerly was the housekeeper of Thomas D. Bennehan.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists revised correspondence series descriptions (1757-1866) to include more information about the community of people enslaved by the Cameron, Bennehan, and Mordecai families. Many of the individual letters highlighted as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction" in this series were identified by Jean Bradley Anderson in Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina (Durham, N.C.: Historic Preservation Commission of Durham, 1985) and by Sydney Nathans in To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2012). Many more records of enslavement exist throughout Series 1. Correspondence but have not yet been identified in this finding aid.
Folder 581-598
Folder 581Folder 582Folder 583Folder 584Folder 585Folder 586Folder 587Folder 588Folder 589Folder 590Folder 591Folder 592Folder 593Folder 594Folder 595Folder 596Folder 597Folder 598 |
Correspondence, 1826 |
| Folder 3747 |
Letter to Mary Anne Ruffin Cameron, 1826Acquisitions information: Accession 101135 |
Folder 599-614
Folder 599Folder 600Folder 601Folder 602Folder 603Folder 604Folder 605Folder 606Folder 607Folder 608Folder 609Folder 610Folder 611Folder 612Folder 613Folder 614 |
Correspondence, 1827 |
Folder 615-633
Folder 615Folder 616Folder 617Folder 618Folder 619Folder 620Folder 621Folder 622Folder 623Folder 624Folder 625Folder 626Folder 627Folder 628Folder 629Folder 630Folder 631Folder 632Folder 633 |
Correspondence, 1828Folder 617: Records of enslavement:
Folder 633: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 634-647
Folder 634Folder 635Folder 636Folder 637Folder 638Folder 639Folder 640Folder 641Folder 642Folder 643Folder 644Folder 645Folder 646Folder 647 |
Correspondence, 1829Folder 636: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 648-665
Folder 648Folder 649Folder 650Folder 651Folder 652Folder 653Folder 654Folder 655Folder 656Folder 657Folder 658Folder 659Folder 660Folder 661Folder 662Folder 663Folder 664Folder 665 |
Correspondence, 1830Folder 648: Records of enslavement:
Folder 652: Records of enslavement:
Folder 651: Records of enslavement:
Folder 659: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 666-684
Folder 666Folder 667Folder 668Folder 669Folder 670Folder 671Folder 672Folder 673Folder 674Folder 675Folder 676Folder 677Folder 678Folder 679Folder 680Folder 681Folder 682Folder 683Folder 684 |
Correspondence, 1831Folder 670: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 685-704
Folder 685Folder 686Folder 687Folder 688Folder 689Folder 690Folder 691Folder 692Folder 693Folder 694Folder 695Folder 696Folder 697Folder 698Folder 699Folder 700Folder 701Folder 702Folder 703Folder 704 |
Correspondence, 1832 |
Folder 705-723
Folder 705Folder 706Folder 707Folder 708Folder 709Folder 710Folder 711Folder 712Folder 713Folder 714Folder 715Folder 716Folder 717Folder 718Folder 719Folder 720Folder 721Folder 722Folder 723 |
Correspondence, 1833Folder 716: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 724-741
Folder 724Folder 725Folder 726Folder 727Folder 728Folder 729Folder 730Folder 731Folder 732Folder 733Folder 734Folder 735Folder 736Folder 737Folder 738Folder 739Folder 740Folder 741 |
Correspondence, 1834 |
Folder 742-760
Folder 742Folder 743Folder 744Folder 745Folder 746Folder 747Folder 748Folder 749Folder 750Folder 751Folder 752Folder 753Folder 754Folder 755Folder 756Folder 757Folder 758Folder 759Folder 760 |
Correspondence, 1835Folder 742: Records of enslavement:
Folder 748: Records of enslavement:
Folder 752: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 761-779
Folder 761Folder 762Folder 763Folder 764Folder 765Folder 766Folder 767Folder 768Folder 769Folder 770Folder 771Folder 772Folder 773Folder 774Folder 775Folder 776Folder 777Folder 778Folder 779 |
Correspondence, 1836Folder 766: Records of enslavement:
Folder 768: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 780-788
Folder 780Folder 781Folder 782Folder 783Folder 784Folder 785Folder 786Folder 787Folder 788 |
Correspondence, 1837 |
Folder 789-803
Folder 789Folder 790Folder 791Folder 792Folder 793Folder 794Folder 795Folder 796Folder 797Folder 798Folder 799Folder 800Folder 801Folder 802Folder 803 |
Correspondence, 1838 |
Folder 803-820
Folder 803Folder 804Folder 805Folder 806Folder 807Folder 808Folder 809Folder 810Folder 811Folder 812Folder 813Folder 814Folder 815Folder 816Folder 817Folder 818Folder 819Folder 820 |
Correspondence, 1839Folder 817: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 821-844
Folder 821Folder 822Folder 823Folder 824Folder 825Folder 826Folder 827Folder 828Folder 829Folder 830Folder 831Folder 832Folder 833Folder 834Folder 835Folder 836Folder 837Folder 838Folder 839Folder 840Folder 841Folder 842Folder 843Folder 844 |
Correspondence, 1840 |
Folder 845-868
Folder 845Folder 846Folder 847Folder 848Folder 849Folder 850Folder 851Folder 852Folder 853Folder 854Folder 855Folder 856Folder 857Folder 858Folder 859Folder 860Folder 861Folder 862Folder 863Folder 864Folder 865Folder 866Folder 867Folder 868 |
Correspondence, 1841Folder 847: Records of enslavement:
Folder 863: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 869-892
Folder 869Folder 870Folder 871Folder 872Folder 873Folder 874Folder 875Folder 876Folder 877Folder 878Folder 879Folder 880Folder 881Folder 882Folder 883Folder 884Folder 885Folder 886Folder 887Folder 888Folder 889Folder 890Folder 891Folder 892 |
Correspondence, 1842Folder 871: Records of enslavement:
Folder 892: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 893-916
Folder 893Folder 894Folder 895Folder 896Folder 897Folder 898Folder 899Folder 900Folder 901Folder 902Folder 903Folder 904Folder 905Folder 906Folder 907Folder 908Folder 909Folder 910Folder 911Folder 912Folder 913Folder 914Folder 915Folder 916 |
Correspondence, 1843 |
Folder 917-940
Folder 917Folder 918Folder 919Folder 920Folder 921Folder 922Folder 923Folder 924Folder 925Folder 926Folder 927Folder 928Folder 929Folder 930Folder 931Folder 932Folder 933Folder 934Folder 935Folder 936Folder 937Folder 938Folder 939Folder 940 |
Correspondence, 1844folder 924: Records of enslavement:
Folder 936: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 941-975
Folder 941Folder 942Folder 943Folder 944Folder 945Folder 946Folder 947Folder 948Folder 949Folder 950Folder 951Folder 952Folder 953Folder 954Folder 955Folder 956Folder 957Folder 958Folder 959Folder 960Folder 961Folder 962Folder 963Folder 964Folder 965Folder 966Folder 967Folder 968Folder 969Folder 970Folder 971Folder 972Folder 973Folder 974Folder 975 |
Correspondence, 1845Folder 941: Records of enslavement:
Folder 942: Records of enslavement:
Folder 951: Records of enslavement:
Folder 971: Records of enslavement:
Folder 973: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 976-999
Folder 976Folder 977Folder 978Folder 979Folder 980Folder 981Folder 982Folder 983Folder 984Folder 985Folder 986Folder 987Folder 988Folder 989Folder 990Folder 991Folder 992Folder 993Folder 994Folder 995Folder 996Folder 997Folder 998Folder 999 |
Correspondence, 1846Folder 990: Records of enslavement:
Folder 993: Records of enslavement:
Folder 994: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1000-1023
Folder 1000Folder 1001Folder 1002Folder 1003Folder 1004Folder 1005Folder 1006Folder 1007Folder 1008Folder 1009Folder 1010Folder 1011Folder 1012Folder 1013Folder 1014Folder 1015Folder 1016Folder 1017Folder 1018Folder 1019Folder 1020Folder 1021Folder 1022Folder 1023 |
Correspondence, 1847Folder 1002: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1009: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1013: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1014: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1022: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1024-1037
Folder 1024Folder 1025Folder 1026Folder 1027Folder 1028Folder 1029Folder 1030Folder 1031Folder 1032Folder 1033Folder 1034Folder 1035Folder 1036Folder 1037 |
Correspondence, 1848Folder 1024: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1031: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1033: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1035: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1037: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1024: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1038-1071
Folder 1038Folder 1039Folder 1040Folder 1041Folder 1042Folder 1043Folder 1044Folder 1045Folder 1046Folder 1047Folder 1048Folder 1049Folder 1050Folder 1051Folder 1052Folder 1053Folder 1054Folder 1055Folder 1056Folder 1057Folder 1058Folder 1059Folder 1060Folder 1061Folder 1062Folder 1063Folder 1064Folder 1065Folder 1066Folder 1067Folder 1068Folder 1069Folder 1070Folder 1071 |
Correspondence, 1849Folder 1068: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1069: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1072-1083
Folder 1072Folder 1073Folder 1074Folder 1075Folder 1076Folder 1077Folder 1078Folder 1079Folder 1080Folder 1081Folder 1082Folder 1083 |
Correspondence, 1850Includes description of a wedding in Fayetteville (8 February 1850). Folder 1073: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1076: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1079: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1081: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1082: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1083: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1084-1095
Folder 1084Folder 1085Folder 1086Folder 1087Folder 1088Folder 1089Folder 1090Folder 1091Folder 1092Folder 1093Folder 1094Folder 1095 |
Correspondence, 1851Folder 1088: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1096-1107
Folder 1096Folder 1097Folder 1098Folder 1099Folder 1100Folder 1101Folder 1102Folder 1103Folder 1104Folder 1105Folder 1106Folder 1107 |
Correspondence, 1852Folder 1098: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1108-1124
Folder 1108Folder 1109Folder 1110Folder 1111Folder 1112Folder 1113Folder 1114Folder 1115Folder 1116Folder 1117Folder 1118Folder 1119Folder 1120Folder 1121Folder 1122Folder 1123Folder 1124 |
Correspondence, 1853 |
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Subseries 1.4. Correspondence, 1854-April
1865.
This subseries documents the activities of Paul C. Cameron and his family after the death of Duncan Cameron, until the end of Civil War.
1854-1859
Chiefly family letters written to Paul C. Cameron and Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai. The family correspondence from this period documents the following: the continuing illness of Mildred and several trips to Philadelphia and New York made by Margaret and Mildred, as well as the enslaved people who assisted them, to try new doctors and climates for Mildred; Anne and Paul C. Cameron's move to Hillsborough, N.C.; malaria epidemics at Fairntosh which caused sickness and suffering in the enslaved community; and Paul C. Cameron's trips to his plantations in Greene County, Ala., and Tunica County, Miss. A few letters document farm operations in the wartime economy.
Much of the family correspondence consists of letters between Paul and Margaret "Maggie" (Cameron) Mordecai, who wrote to each other frequently. Many of these letters mention enslaved people by name. There are also many letters from relatives of the Camerons, to whom Margaret wrote regularly, including Mollie Gales, Seaton Gales, John W. Cameron, Walker Anderson, W. H. Ruffin, J. B. G. Roulhac, Lizzie Jones, Mary Edmunds, Fanny Roulhac, William Anderson, Robert Walker Anderson, Rowena Hines, Susan Hines, Thomas Ruffin, Sr., Mary Lucas, Anna Kirkland, Maria Nash, Eliza Thompson, Isabelle Cameron, Margaret Devereux, Emma Mordecai, Ellen Mordecai, Catherine Roulhac, and Jane Ruffin. Margaret also continued to receive letters from Adelaide Montmollin and Louise DeEnde who were her friends in Philadelphia. There are also frequent letters from Mary McLean Bryant, who was the Cameron girls' governess when they were young. During this period, there are letters received by Anne Ruffin Cameron from her Ruffin relatives. Also, there are letters between Anne Ruffin Cameron and her husband Paul, when he was away on trips.
Paul C. Cameron's investments in agriculture are reflected in the many letters from his commission merchants, who sold the products of the Cameron plantations overseas and in urban markets. The major merchants Cameron patronized were Andrew Kevan of Petersburg, Va.; C. J. Haigh and Son of Fayetteville, N.C.; Tartt, Stewart and Co. of Mobile, Ala.; and Rowland and Bro. of Norfolk, Va. There are also letters from John Webster, overseer of the plantation in Greene County, Ala., and, after 1857, from Wilson Oberry, who replaced him. Letters from James A. Jeter and William Lamb, overseers of the plantation in Tunica County, Miss., are included, as are letters from William and Samuel Piper, who were the overseers at Fairntosh. Overseer letters often report on the labor, health, and deportment of enslaved people who are sometimes identified by name.
Although Paul C. Cameron's vast land holdings were his first priority, he did contract in the 1850s to build a section of the North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) with enslaved labor from his plantations. There are letters dealing with the contract and other railroad business, particularly letters from Charles Fisher, an official of the NCRR. There are also some letters documenting Cameron's election to one term in the State Senate in 1856.
Paul C. Cameron's correspondents included David L. Swain, Cad Jones, William A. Graham, Charles Phillips, Joseph Wright, V. F. Caldwell, Charles Manly, J. W. Norwood, Rev. William Mercer Green, Rev. George Freeman, and Ken Rayner.
1860-April 1865
Chiefly family letters written to Paul C. Cameron and his sister Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai ("Maggie"). Some of Paul C. Cameron's correspondence with his wife Anne Ruffin Cameron is included. Family letters frequently give news about the enslaved community and mention enslaved people by name.
From 1860 to 1861, there are numerous letters to Paul C. Cameron from his factors, friends, and business associates. However, during the Civil War, there is very little of Paul C. Cameron's correspondence. According to historian R. D. W. Connor, Anne Ruffin Cameron and her son Bennehan Cameron burned many of Paul C. Cameron's papers in order to protect him when he requested a pardon from the Union government for his support of the Confederacy. The remaining family letters do provide some documentation of the family's response to the war.
Prior to the war, there are business letters written to Paul C. Cameron concerning his plantations and the North Carolina Railroad of which he was president in 1861. Paul C. Cameron's letters from his factors are numerous. Among the factors are Tartt, Stewart, and Company in Mobile, Ala.; Battle, Nobel, and Company in New Orleans, La.; Andrew Keven and Brothers in Norfolk, Va.; Rowland and Brothers in Norfolk; and E. M. Apperson and Company in Memphis, Tenn. Paul C. Cameron also corresponded with his out-of-state overseers, William Lamb in Mississippi and Wilson Oberry in Alabama. Overseer letters often report on the labor, health, and deportment of enslaved people who are sometimes identified by name.
Other correspondents of Paul C. Cameron include Peter Hairston, Charles Pettigrew, William Halliburton, J. W. Norwood, Worth Daniel, Thomas Bragg, Hugh Waddell, William A. Graham, Bishop James Otey, Rev. William Mercer Green, Charles Dewey, David L. Swain, Kemp P. Battle, Charles Fisher, Rev. George Patterson, and Thomas Webb.
During the war, the bulk of the letters deal with domestic topics. There are letters from Paul and Anne Ruffin Cameron's sons Duncan Cameron and Bennehan Cameron, written from the schools they attended. There are also letters from their teachers and headmasters about the boys' deportment and academic progress. Duncan Cameron's several attempts to run away are documented. Some of George Mordecai's personal and business correspondence is also scattered among the Cameron family letters.
Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai (Maggie) continued her prolific correspondence with her extended family throughout the Civil War. Her sister Mildred, who was disabled by a mysterious illness, lived with the Mordecais during this period. Margaret also continued to receive letters from her friends in Philadelphia, Adelaide Montmollin and Louise DeEnde. Margaret corresponded with Emma Mordecai, Laurine Mordecai, Mary Jones, Phebe Hawks, Rebecca Anderson, Mary Lucas, and Robert Walker Anderson. In addition there are letters to Anne Ruffin Cameron from members of the Ruffin family, including Catherine Roulhac, and Thomas Ruffin Jr.
For more documentation of the schooling of Paul and Anne Ruffin Cameron's children, see Subseries 4.3 and 5.1.
For documentation of Paul C. Cameron's service to the Confederacy, see Subseries 5.3.
See Subseries 2.9 for Confederate Bonds.
See Subseries 2.1 for documentation of financial transactions between Paul C. Cameron and his factors.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists revised correspondence series descriptions (1757-1866) to include more information about the community of people enslaved by the Cameron, Bennehan, and Mordecai families. Many of the individual letters highlighted as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction" in this series were identified by Jean Bradley Anderson in Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina (Durham, N.C.: Historic Preservation Commission of Durham, 1985) and by Sydney Nathans in To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2012). Many more records of enslavement exist throughout Series 1. Correspondence but have not yet been identified in this finding aid.
Folder 1125-1136
Folder 1125Folder 1126Folder 1127Folder 1128Folder 1129Folder 1130Folder 1131Folder 1132Folder 1133Folder 1134Folder 1135Folder 1136 |
Correspondence, 1854Folder 1130: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1137-1150
Folder 1137Folder 1138Folder 1139Folder 1140Folder 1141Folder 1142Folder 1143Folder 1144Folder 1145Folder 1146Folder 1147Folder 1148Folder 1149Folder 1150 |
Correspondence, 1855 |
Folder 1151-1164
Folder 1151Folder 1152Folder 1153Folder 1154Folder 1155Folder 1156Folder 1157Folder 1158Folder 1159Folder 1160Folder 1161Folder 1162Folder 1163Folder 1164 |
Correspondence, 1856Folder 1153: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1160: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1165-1176
Folder 1165Folder 1166Folder 1167Folder 1168Folder 1169Folder 1170Folder 1171Folder 1172Folder 1173Folder 1174Folder 1175Folder 1176 |
Correspondence, 1857 |
Folder 1177-1188
Folder 1177Folder 1178Folder 1179Folder 1180Folder 1181Folder 1182Folder 1183Folder 1184Folder 1185Folder 1186Folder 1187Folder 1188 |
Correspondence, 1858Folder 1178: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1189-1201
Folder 1189Folder 1190Folder 1191Folder 1192Folder 1193Folder 1194Folder 1195Folder 1196Folder 1197Folder 1198Folder 1199Folder 1200Folder 1201 |
Correspondence, 1859Folder 1197: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1202-1213
Folder 1202Folder 1203Folder 1204Folder 1205Folder 1206Folder 1207Folder 1208Folder 1209Folder 1210Folder 1211Folder 1212Folder 1213 |
Correspondence, 1860Folder 1203: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1214-1225
Folder 1214Folder 1215Folder 1216Folder 1217Folder 1218Folder 1219Folder 1220Folder 1221Folder 1222Folder 1223Folder 1224Folder 1225 |
Correspondence, 1861Folder 1224: Records of enslavement:
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Folder 1226-1231
Folder 1226Folder 1227Folder 1228Folder 1229Folder 1230Folder 1231 |
Correspondence, 1862 |
Folder 1232-1239
Folder 1232Folder 1233Folder 1234Folder 1235Folder 1236Folder 1237Folder 1238Folder 1239 |
Correspondence, 1863 |
Folder 1240-1245
Folder 1240Folder 1241Folder 1242Folder 1243Folder 1244Folder 1245 |
Correspondence, 1864 |
Folder 1246-1247
Folder 1246Folder 1247 |
Correspondence, 1865: January-April |
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Subseries 1.5. Correspondence,
May 1865-1889.
This subseries documents the post-Civil War activities of Paul C. Cameron, with some material relating to Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai and other family members, as well as the freed people who were formerly enslaved by the Camerons.
May 1865-1869
Family letters written to Paul C. Cameron and his sister Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai ("Maggie"). Some of Paul C. Cameron's correspondence with his wife Anne Ruffin Cameron is included. There are also business letters written to Paul C. Cameron concerning his plantations and the North Carolina Railroad and other railroads in the state. Some of George Mordecai's personal and business correspondence is also scattered among the Cameron family letters. Of particular note are the letters from overseers Wilson Oberry in Greene County, Ala., and Samuel Piper in Orange and Durham counties, N.C. Their letters provide some insight into the lives of freed people from the perspective of white people who sought to continue control of the movements of the Black population.
After the Civil War, correspondents described the aftermath of emancipation, often with frustration and fear, and a lack of empathy and imagination for how freed people experienced the abrupt change in their status. Financial uncertainty was a fact of life for nearly everyone, Black peole and white people alike, immediately after the war, but white people were enraged that freed people did not seem to be as stressed by the threat of destitution, or that they engaged in looting to get by. Letters of overseers and former enslavers expressed displeasure if not disbelief that Black sharecroppers and field workers negotiated for pay and benefits to their advantage as much as possible, and that their first concerns were not the interests of their former enslavers. Some male field workers, for example, did not want their wives working in the field. White plantation owners repeatedly complained to each other about the work ethic they attributed to freed people and boasted of discharging workers they found disagreeable. They also shared advice on terms of hire.
The correspondence gives the impression that management of the Cameron's vast land holdings was challenged continuously by labor shortages and lawlessness, including the looting of Fairntosh. Paul C. Cameron ultimately relinquished much of the direct control of his plantations to tenant farmers and sharecroppers, some of whom had formerly been enslaved by him. Although he maintained contact with his antebellum factors Tartt, Stewart, and Company in Mobile, Ala., Battle, Nobel, and Company in New Orleans, La., Andrew Keven and Brothers in Norfolk, Va., and E. M. Apperson and Company in Memphis, Tenn., Cameron did not have as many agricultural products to sell as he did before the war.
Paul C. Cameron remained involved in the North Carolina Railroad after the Civil War, and began to become interested in investing in mills and other industrial ventures. His correspondents during these years included Peter Hairston, Charles Pettigrew, William Halliburton, J. W. Norwood, Worth Daniel, Thomas Bragg, Hugh Waddell, William A. Graham, Bishop James Otey, Rev. William Mercer Green, Charles Dewey, David L. Swain, Kemp P. Battle, Charles Fisher, Rev. George Patterson, and Thomas Webb.
During these years there are letters to Paul and Anne Ruffin Cameron from their sons Duncan Cameron and Bennehan Cameron who were at school. There are also letters from their teachers and headmasters about the boys' deportment and academic progress. There are frequent letters from Paul and Anne Ruffin Cameron's daughter Anne Ruffin Cameron Collins (Annie) and her husband George P. Collins, who moved to Tunica County, Miss., to run Paul C. Cameron's plantation there after the Civil War. There are also letters from another daughter, Rebecca Cameron Graham, and her husband John Graham.
Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai (Maggie) continued to care for her disabled sister Mildred C. Cameron. There are frequent exchanges between Paul C. Cameron and Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai about the health of Mildred, as well as other family business. Margaret continued to receive letters from her friends in Philadelphia, Adelaide Montmollin and Louise DeEnde. Margaret corresponded frequently with members of her extended family including Emma Mordecai, Laurine Mordecai, Mary Jones, Phebe Hawks, Rebecca Anderson, Mary Lucas, and Robert Walker Anderson. Anne Ruffin Cameron's letters from the Ruffin and Roulhac families are also included.
For more documentation about the schooling of Paul and Anne Ruffin Cameron's children, see Subseries 4.3 and 5.1.
For documentation of financial transactions between Paul C. Cameron and his factors, see Subseries 2.1.
1870-1889
Chiefly family letters, particularly correspondence between Paul C. Cameron and his sister Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai ("Maggie"), between Paul C. Cameron and his wife Anne Ruffin Cameron, and between Paul and Anne Ruffin Cameron and their children. Also included are some letters to Paul C. Cameron from friends and business associates.
Family letters document the death of George Mordecai in 1871, Mildred C. Cameron's declining health, the marriages of Paul C. Cameron's children, Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai's trip to Philadelphia for the centennial celebration in 1876, and her involvement with Saint Mary's School in Raleigh, N.C.
Letters to Paul C. Cameron document his continued support of the North Carolina Railroad Company, other railroad companies, local banks, and local cotton manufacturing companies. Also well documented is Paul C. Cameron's leadership in the effort to reopen and rebuild the University of North Carolina which had closed during Reconstruction and fallen into disrepair. There are frequent letters from Kemp P. Battle, president of the University of North Carolina, and from Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Cameron's longtime friend and booster of the University. Paul C. Cameron also corresponded regularly with George W. Patterson, an Episcopal minister and family friend.
Paul C. Cameron continued to correspond with his factors, Andrew Keven in Petersburg, Va., and Rawland Brothers in Norfolk, Va., but the letters are much sparser than in past decades. There are letters from tenants and overseers, including J. G. Piper, Samuel Rogers, and Wilson Oberry.
Paul C. Cameron's frequent correspondents include Bishop Thomas Atkinson, William A. Graham, Aldert Smedes, J. W. Norwood, Kemp P. Battle, John Kerr, George W. Thompson, Joseph B. Cheshire, John Devereaux, George Winston, William Mercer Green, Charles Dewey, and Cornelia Spencer.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists revised correspondence series descriptions (1757-1866) to include more information about the community of people enslaved by the Cameron, Bennehan, and Mordecai families. Many of the individual letters highlighted as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction" in this series were identified by Jean Bradley Anderson in Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina (Durham, N.C.: Historic Preservation Commission of Durham, 1985) and by Sydney Nathans in To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2012). Many more records of enslavement exist throughout Series 1. Correspondence but have not yet been identified in this finding aid.
Folder 1248-1252
Folder 1248Folder 1249Folder 1250Folder 1251Folder 1252 |
Correspondence, 1865: May-DecemberFolder 1248: Records of Reconstruction:
Folder 1249: Records of Reconstruction:
Folder 1251: Records of Reconstruction:
Folder 1252: Records of Reconstruction:
|
Folder 1253-1270
Folder 1253Folder 1254Folder 1255Folder 1256Folder 1257Folder 1258Folder 1259Folder 1260Folder 1261Folder 1262Folder 1263Folder 1264Folder 1265Folder 1266Folder 1267Folder 1268Folder 1269Folder 1270 |
Correspondence, 1866Folder 1253: Records of Reconstruction:
Folder 1254: Records of Reconstruction:
Folder 1255: Records of Reconstruction:
Folder 1256: Records of Reconstruction:
Folder 1257: Records of Reconstruction:
Folder 1260: Records of Reconstruction
Folder 1266: Records of Reconstruction:
|
Folder 1271-1284
Folder 1271Folder 1272Folder 1273Folder 1274Folder 1275Folder 1276Folder 1277Folder 1278Folder 1279Folder 1280Folder 1281Folder 1282Folder 1283Folder 1284 |
Correspondence, 1867 |
Folder 1285-1296
Folder 1285Folder 1286Folder 1287Folder 1288Folder 1289Folder 1290Folder 1291Folder 1292Folder 1293Folder 1294Folder 1295Folder 1296 |
Correspondence, 1868 |
Folder 1297-1309
Folder 1297Folder 1298Folder 1299Folder 1300Folder 1301Folder 1302Folder 1303Folder 1304Folder 1305Folder 1306Folder 1307Folder 1308Folder 1309 |
Correspondence, 1869 |
Folder 1310-1328
Folder 1310Folder 1311Folder 1312Folder 1313Folder 1314Folder 1315Folder 1316Folder 1317Folder 1318Folder 1319Folder 1320Folder 1321Folder 1322Folder 1323Folder 1324Folder 1325Folder 1326Folder 1327Folder 1328 |
Correspondence, 1870 |
Folder 1329-1351
Folder 1329Folder 1330Folder 1331Folder 1332Folder 1333Folder 1334Folder 1335Folder 1336Folder 1337Folder 1338Folder 1339Folder 1340Folder 1341Folder 1342Folder 1343Folder 1344Folder 1345Folder 1346Folder 1347Folder 1348Folder 1349Folder 1350Folder 1351 |
Correspondence, 1871 |
Folder 1352-1367
Folder 1352Folder 1353Folder 1354Folder 1355Folder 1356Folder 1357Folder 1358Folder 1359Folder 1360Folder 1361Folder 1362Folder 1363Folder 1364Folder 1365Folder 1366Folder 1367 |
Correspondence, 1872 |
Folder 1368-1391
Folder 1368Folder 1369Folder 1370Folder 1371Folder 1372Folder 1373Folder 1374Folder 1375Folder 1376Folder 1377Folder 1378Folder 1379Folder 1380Folder 1381Folder 1382Folder 1383Folder 1384Folder 1385Folder 1386Folder 1387Folder 1388Folder 1389Folder 1390Folder 1391 |
Correspondence, 1873 |
Folder 1392-1412
Folder 1392Folder 1393Folder 1394Folder 1395Folder 1396Folder 1397Folder 1398Folder 1399Folder 1400Folder 1401Folder 1402Folder 1403Folder 1404Folder 1405Folder 1406Folder 1407Folder 1408Folder 1409Folder 1410Folder 1411Folder 1412 |
Correspondence, 1874 |
Folder 1413-1434
Folder 1413Folder 1414Folder 1415Folder 1416Folder 1417Folder 1418Folder 1419Folder 1420Folder 1421Folder 1422Folder 1423Folder 1424Folder 1425Folder 1426Folder 1427Folder 1428Folder 1429Folder 1430Folder 1431Folder 1432Folder 1433Folder 1434 |
Correspondence, 1875Folder ??: Records of Reconstruction
|
Folder 1435-1452
Folder 1435Folder 1436Folder 1437Folder 1438Folder 1439Folder 1440Folder 1441Folder 1442Folder 1443Folder 1444Folder 1445Folder 1446Folder 1447Folder 1448Folder 1449Folder 1450Folder 1451Folder 1452 |
Correspondence, 1876 |
Folder 1453-1464
Folder 1453Folder 1454Folder 1455Folder 1456Folder 1457Folder 1458Folder 1459Folder 1460Folder 1461Folder 1462Folder 1463Folder 1464 |
Correspondence, 1877 |
Folder 1465-1488
Folder 1465Folder 1466Folder 1467Folder 1468Folder 1469Folder 1470Folder 1471Folder 1472Folder 1473Folder 1474Folder 1475Folder 1476Folder 1477Folder 1478Folder 1479Folder 1480Folder 1481Folder 1482Folder 1483Folder 1484Folder 1485Folder 1486Folder 1487Folder 1488 |
Correspondence, 1878 |
Folder 1489-1515
Folder 1489Folder 1490Folder 1491Folder 1492Folder 1493Folder 1494Folder 1495Folder 1496Folder 1497Folder 1498Folder 1499Folder 1500Folder 1501Folder 1502Folder 1503Folder 1504Folder 1505Folder 1506Folder 1507Folder 1508Folder 1509Folder 1510Folder 1511Folder 1512Folder 1513Folder 1514Folder 1515 |
Correspondence, 1879 |
| Folder 1516 |
Correspondence, 1870s |
Folder 1517-1539
Folder 1517Folder 1518Folder 1519Folder 1520Folder 1521Folder 1522Folder 1523Folder 1524Folder 1525Folder 1526Folder 1527Folder 1528Folder 1529Folder 1530Folder 1531Folder 1532Folder 1533Folder 1534Folder 1535Folder 1536Folder 1537Folder 1538Folder 1539 |
Correspondence, 1880 |
Folder 1540-1556
Folder 1540Folder 1541Folder 1542Folder 1543Folder 1544Folder 1545Folder 1546Folder 1547Folder 1548Folder 1549Folder 1550Folder 1551Folder 1552Folder 1553Folder 1554Folder 1555Folder 1556 |
Correspondence, 1881 |
Folder 1557-1570
Folder 1557Folder 1558Folder 1559Folder 1560Folder 1561Folder 1562Folder 1563Folder 1564Folder 1565Folder 1566Folder 1567Folder 1568Folder 1569Folder 1570 |
Correspondence, 1882 |
Folder 1571-1587
Folder 1571Folder 1572Folder 1573Folder 1574Folder 1575Folder 1576Folder 1577Folder 1578Folder 1579Folder 1580Folder 1581Folder 1582Folder 1583Folder 1584Folder 1585Folder 1586Folder 1587 |
Correspondence, 1883 |
Folder 1588-1611
Folder 1588Folder 1589Folder 1590Folder 1591Folder 1592Folder 1593Folder 1594Folder 1595Folder 1596Folder 1597Folder 1598Folder 1599Folder 1600Folder 1601Folder 1602Folder 1603Folder 1604Folder 1605Folder 1606Folder 1607Folder 1608Folder 1609Folder 1610Folder 1611 |
Correspondence, 1884 |
Folder 1612-1634
Folder 1612Folder 1613Folder 1614Folder 1615Folder 1616Folder 1617Folder 1618Folder 1619Folder 1620Folder 1621Folder 1622Folder 1623Folder 1624Folder 1625Folder 1626Folder 1627Folder 1628Folder 1629Folder 1630Folder 1631Folder 1632Folder 1633Folder 1634 |
Correspondence, 1885 |
Folder 1635-1656
Folder 1635Folder 1636Folder 1637Folder 1638Folder 1639Folder 1640Folder 1641Folder 1642Folder 1643Folder 1644Folder 1645Folder 1646Folder 1647Folder 1648Folder 1649Folder 1650Folder 1651Folder 1652Folder 1653Folder 1654Folder 1655Folder 1656 |
Correspondence, 1886 |
Folder 1657-1674
Folder 1657Folder 1658Folder 1659Folder 1660Folder 1661Folder 1662Folder 1663Folder 1664Folder 1665Folder 1666Folder 1667Folder 1668Folder 1669Folder 1670Folder 1671Folder 1672Folder 1673Folder 1674 |
Correspondence, 1887 |
Folder 1675-1696
Folder 1675Folder 1676Folder 1677Folder 1678Folder 1679Folder 1680Folder 1681Folder 1682Folder 1683Folder 1684Folder 1685Folder 1686Folder 1687Folder 1688Folder 1689Folder 1690Folder 1691Folder 1692Folder 1693Folder 1694Folder 1695Folder 1696 |
Correspondence, 1888 |
Folder 1697-1715
Folder 1697Folder 1698Folder 1699Folder 1700Folder 1701Folder 1702Folder 1703Folder 1704Folder 1705Folder 1706Folder 1707Folder 1708Folder 1709Folder 1710Folder 1711Folder 1712Folder 1713Folder 1714Folder 1715 |
Correspondence, 1889 |
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Subseries 1.6. Correspondence, 1890-1935.
This subseries consists of letters written to members of the Cameron family after the death of Paul C. Cameron.
1890-1897
Chiefly letters to Anne Ruffin Cameron from her children and grandchildren. Anne Ruffin Cameron also received occasional letters from Kemp P. Battle, Cornelia Phillips Spencer, and George W. Patterson. The bulk of the letters to her, however, are from family members concerning domestic matters.
1898-1935
Letters written to Bennehan Cameron, Paul C. Graham, and John W. Graham from lawyers and banks relating to the settlement of Paul C. Cameron's estate. From 1898 to 1914, the letters are written to Bennehan. A letter, dated 17 August 1901, deals extensively with Bennehan Square in Raleigh, N.C. After 1914, the letters are to Paul C. Graham and John W. Graham.
Folder 1716-1729
Folder 1716Folder 1717Folder 1718Folder 1719Folder 1720Folder 1721Folder 1722Folder 1723Folder 1724Folder 1725Folder 1726Folder 1727Folder 1728Folder 1729 |
Correspondence, 1890 |
Folder 1730-1732
Folder 1730Folder 1731Folder 1732 |
Correspondence, 1891 |
Folder 1733-1735
Folder 1733Folder 1734Folder 1735 |
Correspondence, 1892 |
| Folder 1736 |
Correspondence, 1893 |
| Folder 1737 |
Correspondence, 1894 |
| Folder 1738 |
Correspondence, 1895 |
| Folder 1739 |
Correspondence, 1896-1897 |
| Folder 1740 |
Correspondence, 1898-1914 |
| Folder 1741 |
Correspondence, 1915-1935 |
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Subseries 1.7. Outgoing Correspondence, undated.
Arrangement: alphabetical by last name of writer.
Undated letters written by members of the Cameron family and their relatives.
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Subseries 1.8. Incoming Correspondence, undated.
Arrangement: alphabetical by last name of writer.
Undated letters from individuals (including members of the Mordecai family) who were not members of the Cameron family.
| Folder 1867 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): AEmma [Graves?] Alderman (Mrs. Edwin A.). Elias Alexander. Amelia [Johnston] Alves. Walter Alves. B. H. Ancrum. Annie Ashe. Caroline B. Ashe. Meta Ashe. R. H. Ashe. Sam P. Ashe. R. W. Ashton. Robert Atkinson. S. P. Atkinson. EBA. |
Folder 1868-1872
Folder 1868Folder 1869Folder 1870Folder 1871Folder 1872 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): BMrs. George E. Badger. George E. Badger. M. C. Batchelor. Kemp P. Battle. Pattie (Mrs. Kemp P.) Battle. C. Bayley. Miss Beach. Fannie M. Beall. G. T. Bedell. Robert Bell. [C. J. Benton?]. Josh Blake. Tempe Blakely. Ellen Boylan. Annie E. T. Bradford. G. S. Bradshaw. George Brasfield. James Briggs. N. L. Brodnax. A. Brown. Aunt A. Brown. Peter Browne. Mrs. John H. Bryan. Mary McLean Bryant. Sarah M. Bryant. David Buchanan. Benjamin Bulloch. Miss Burgwyn. Burnett & Rigdon. Horace Burton. M. A. Burwell. S. H. Busbee. Jarvis Buxton. |
Folder 1873-1874
Folder 1873Folder 1874 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): CE. Cain. Mary C. Cain. T. R. Cain. W. Cain. David E. Caldwell. Elias Caldwell. Helen (Hogg) Caldwell (Mrs. Joseph). R. A. Caldwell. Harriet A. Carter. Jesse Carter. Agnes Mayo Carter. Joseph Blount Cheshire. Frances Child. C. R. Childs. William Coggin. [W. Cooke?]. James Cothran. Will A. Crawford. C. P. Curtis. Mary DeRosset Curtis (Mrs. M. A.). Moses Ashley Curtis. Mary Curtis. L. Czarnowska. |
| Folder 1875 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): DM. C. Dancy. W. Dandridge. Janes Daniel. Allen Jones Davie. Anna Devereux. J. Devereux. Kate Devereux. Margaret Devereux. Meta Devereux. Thomas Pollock Devereux. C. Dewey. Jesse Dickens. Samuel Dickins. John H. [Du Cartintz?]. D[orothea] L. Dix. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/103 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): Letter to Duncan Cameron from Buchanan Dunlop, 2 October 1800Formerly OP-133/90; this number is no longer in use. |
| Folder 1876 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): E, F, GPeter Early. [C. W.?] Edmonston. Franklin Felton. Hamilton Fulton. C. E. Gadsden. Joseph Gales. Mrs. Joseph Gales. L. S. Gales. Weston R. Gales. William Gaston. Andrew Gibson. James Gibson. Glass. S. W. (Mrs. William A.) Graham. Lucy A. Green. William Mercer Green. |
Folder 1877-1879
Folder 1877Folder 1878Folder 1879 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): HE. J. Hale. George Haldane. James Hamilton (Granville County). Edward Hampton. J. Hawkins. W. J. Hawkins. Mrs. F. L. Hawks. John Haywood, treasurer. John Haywood, judge. Sherwood Haywood. William Haywood. W. H. Haywood. W. H. Haywood, Jr. Pleasant Henderson. Thomas Henderson. Mrs. Kate Henesse. E. Hill. E. H. Hill. Thomas B. Hill. W. F. Hilliard. C. Hines. Rowena Hines. Nellie Hinsdale. John Hogan. Gavin Hogg. James Hogg, Jr. M. W. Holt. W. Hooper. Helen Hughes. John Huske. |
| Folder 1880 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): I, JMr. and Mrs. Iredell [James, Jr.?]. Lieutenant Johnson. William Johnston. Calvin Jones. Maggie Jones. Pride Jones. R. E. (Mrs. Cadwallader?) Jones. Robert H. Jones. Andrew Kevan & Bro. |
| Folder 1881 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): K, LF. S. Key. John N. Kirkland. Bryant Kittrell. Andrew Knox Lamb. Lawrence LeMay. [John Lenox?]. George Lightfoot. J. G. Lippett. J. Lippincott. J. R. Lloyd. F. Lock. |
Folder 1882-1886
Folder 1882Folder 1883Folder 1884Folder 1885Folder 1886 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): ME. M. Ida M. W. P. Mangum. James Crew [McCaw?], Richmond, to Richard Bennehan. Benjamin McCulloch. M. McGehee. F. M. McKeithen. Cameron T. McRae. E. McMurtrie. Mary Mason. R. S. Mason. S. L. Manly. M. E. Manly. John Manning. Thomas C. Manning. Betty Marbury (34). H. H. Marbury. Juliet Marbury. Thomas Marshall to James Martin. M. Sue Marshall. W. Mebane. L. Mitchell to Thomas D. Bennehan. Mr. and Mrs. Miller. Ann Moore. Mary Moore. B. F. Moores. Adelaide Montmollin. Augusta Mordecai. Ellen Mordecai. Patty M[ordecai]. Henry Mordecai. M. Mordecai. John Motley Morehead (unimportant note). Martha Morse. H. Murfree. Carolina Myers. |
Folder 1887-1890
Folder 1887Folder 1888Folder 1889Folder 1890 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): N, O, P, QJ. W. Nicholson. Hezikiah Niles. James Norwood. W. Oberry. Robert Nash Ogden. Wm. W. Old. Alfred Palmer. James Parks. Parsons & Co. Lydia C. Partridge. George Patterson. Jeanie Patterson. Samuel F. Patterson. Dane [Pealh?] Mittie Peebles. P. F. Pescud. K. W. Petersilia. Annie S. Pettigrew. J. G. Piper. S. Piper overseer, many letters. W. Piper. Andrew J. Polk. F. A. Polk. Leonidas Polk. Sarah (Mrs. William) Polk. William Polk. Ann Pollok (fragment probably to Mrs. Richard Bennehan). William Potter to Richard Bennehan. H. [J?] Pride to Thomas D. Bennehan. Annie Quayle. |
| Folder 1891 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): RMary D. Ramseur. John Ramsey. Susan S. (Mrs. Kenneth Rayner. J. Reid. John Grant Rencher. Crawford Riddell. Rowland. John C. Rudd about Thomas Cameron. Mary Ryan. |
Folder 1892-1893
Folder 1892Folder 1893 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): SR. A. S. A[nna] H[ayes] (Mrs. Romulus M.) Saunders. Romulus M. Saunders. A. M. Scales. W. A. Sharpe. G[ottlieb] Shober. A. Smedes. Bennett Smedes. Sadie S. Smedes. James Smith, Jr. Jesse Smith. Richard Smith. Venal Smith. John Snow. J. Southerland. P. Southerland. W. W. Spear. Cornelia P. Spencer. Mary Stanford. Robert S. Steele. Charles Stewart. David W. Stone. Mrs. Stott. Eben[ezer] Stott. Bettie Strange. F. K. Strother. Bryant Strowd. S. Strudwick. William B. Sullivan. |
| Folder 1894 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): T, U, VE. L. T. A. Temple. C. Townsend. Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. (committee). D. & M. Trokes. Asa Turner. J. Turner. S. C. D. Turner. W. D. Turrentine. U. N. C. Dialectic Society. Z. B. Vance. W. F. Vestal. |
Folder 1895-1897
Folder 1895Folder 1896Folder 1897 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): W, X, Y, ZS. H. W. Hugh Waddell. John Wadow. Robert Walker. E. Althea Warren. James Webb. R. Webb. John R. Whitaker. B. Williams. E. B. Eilleston. George T. Winston. J. Witherspoon. A. Wright. J. W. Wright. T. Wright. |
Folder 1898-1901
Folder 1898Folder 1899Folder 1900Folder 1901 |
Incoming correspondence (undated): Unidentified writers; Fragments |
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Series 2. Family Financial and Legal Papers, 1761-1942 and undated.
Arrangement: by type and then chronological.
Accounts (Subseries 2.1), deeds and indentures (Subseries 2.2), surveys and land plats (Subseries 2.3), tax lists and receipts (Subseries 2.4), promissory notes and bonds (Subseries 2.5), estate papers (Subseries 2.6), wills (Subseries 2.7), insurance policies (Subseries 2.8), and other papers (Subseries 2.9) documenting the financial and legal affairs of members of the Cameron family and related families, as well as the labor, medical care, provisioning, and trafficking through sale, devising, and hiring out of the people who were enslaved by them, and the labor of freed people who became field workers, sharecroppers, and tenant farmers on Cameron land after the Civil War. For records of enslavement, see subseries for accounts, deeds and indentures, tax lists, estate papers, wills, and other papers.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists reviewed this series to uncover more information about enslaved and free Black people. Folders that include materials related to enslaved and free Black people during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction." People were presumed to be enslaved if identified only by a first name or if described with a racial term (but not otherwise identifed as a free person of color) or as "hands." Receipts that do not identify an enslaved person by name are recorded with the hope that information elsewhere in the collection may help with future identification. Receipts for supplies like hats, shoes, and blankets for enslaved people are only highlighted if explicitly stated for enslaved people; however, it is likely that there are many more receipts for supplies that document slavery.
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Subseries 2.1. Accounts, 1767-1942
and undated.
Accounts document income and expenses of members of the Cameron family and related families and their associates, as well as the labor, medical care, provisioning, and trafficking through sale, devising, and hiring out of the people who were enslaved by them, and the labor of freed people who became field workers, sharecroppers, and tenant farmers on Cameron land after the Civil War.
Note that this subseries is divided chronologically into four periods: antebellum, Civil War, post-war, and undated. The bulk of these accounts is from the antebellum period.
See Subseries 6.2 and 6.7 for account books.
See Subseries 2.6 for accounts relating to settlement of Cameron Family estates.
1767-March 1861
Records of income and expenses of Richard and Thomas D. Bennehan, their business partners William Johnston and Thomas Amis, Duncan and Paul C. Cameron, Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai, Mildred C. Cameron, and several wards supported by the Camerons. Materials include shipping invoices, bills and receipts, various kinds of lists (debts, tools, crops, livestock), household and store inventories, financial statements, and checks.
Records documenting the people enslaved by the Camerons in Orange, Person, and Wake County, N.C., are also found here, especially in lists of enslaved people that often include names, ages, and familial relationships, and in receipts for medical services, provisioning of blankets, hats, and other supplies, and the trafficking through hiring out of their labor, skills, and knowledge. Of note are the points at which the enslaved communities were subjected to significant disruptions and forced relocations. Beginning in 1844, there are receipts and lists of enslaved people, supplies, and expenses relating to a Cameron plantation in Greene County, Ala. Beginning in the 1850s there are similar materials documenting a Cameron plantation in Tunica County, Miss. Also of note are the deaths of Thomas D. Bennehan in 1847 and Duncan Cameron in 1853, which resulted in lists and related documents that show the division of enslaved communities to fulfill the inheritances of the Cameron heirs.
The information contained on a single bill or receipt often combines personal and household expenses with plantation, store, legal, or other business expenses, demonstrating the fluidity with which the Camerons perceived their financial affairs: the private world and the world of business are not always clearly distinct in the Cameron accounts. Furthermore, different business interests are often mingled as well.
The accounts originate from diverse locations including Raleigh and Hillsborough, N.C.; New York and Philadelphia; Norfolk and Petersburg, Va.; Mobile, Ala.; and Memphis, Tenn. Some accounts span several years and are filed according to the date the account was settled or the date of the last entry.
These accounts document myriad services rendered or employed, and goods purchased or sold by the Camerons. Included are bills for textiles and clothing; food, liquor, and spices; tools for agriculture and carpentry; sewing and medical instruments; guns and ammunition; building supplies; household furnishings; plants and animals; music and musical instruments; books and subscriptions for newspapers and periodicals; travel expenses; tuition and school supplies; club memberships; medical visits, prescriptions, and medicines/cathartics for sicknesses, ailments, and procedures such as abortion, childbirth (accouchement), circumcision (phimosis), lancing of boils, and vaccination; land purchases and sales; personal items such as jewelry, eyeglasses, combs, and postage; and tombstones and coffins. Services documented include those offered by the Cameron Family such as horse breeding and Duncan Cameron's legal services, as well as services commissioned by the Camerons, such as weaving, sewing, ditching, gardening, hauling, plastering, painting, building repair (agricultural equipment, household furnishings, buildings), and surveying. Included are bills from doctors, midwives, merchants, factors, carpenters, coppersmiths, tailors, blacksmiths, seamstresses, cabinetmakers, undertakers, stonemasons, overseers, wheelwrights, jewelers, shoemakers, and many others.
Some topics of special interest which are documented by accounts include the capture of two deserters by Richard Bennehan, who was relieved of military service for this act (June 1781); subscription receipts for the Episcopal Schools of North Carolina in 1837 and subsequent bills for building and repairs at Saint Mary's seminary; in the early 1850s, several bills for labor and supplies used to build the North Carolina Railroad; and material concerning the University of North Carolina.
For account books, see Subseries 6.2-6.7.
For accounts relating to the settlement of the estates of the Cameron family, see Subseries 2.6.
April 1861-April 1865
These accounts document the income and expenses of Paul C. Cameron, Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai, Mildred C. Cameron, and others. Like the earlier accounts, these materials identify individual enslaved people at plantations in North Carolina and Mississippi, and document a variety of goods and services, especially medical care, purchased or provided by the Cameron family. There is a receipt documenting the hiring out of labor, skills, and knowledge of enslaved people to the railroad. In addition, there is evidence of Cameron support of the Confederacy in receipts for labor provided by enslaved people to the Confederate Army and for fabric and merchandise associated with Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai's work with the Ladies Soldiers Aid Society of Raleigh (1861).
May 1865-1942
These accounts document the income and expenses of Paul C. Cameron, Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai, Mildred C. Cameron, Thomas A. Cameron, and Bennehan Cameron. The records document a variety of goods and services purchased or provided by the Cameron family, including corn, bacon, and other staples harvested by freed people. Account records also contain property lists and other information about the estates of Paul C. Cameron, Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai, and Mildred C. Cameron. Other records concern the University of North Carolina, and include bills for construction of Memorial Hall (20 June 1885); see also an undated "estimate for completion of Swain Hall, Chapel Hill." Undated accounts from this era are in Subseries 2.1.4.
Undated
Undated accounts, are arranged by recipient and exclude those of Richard Bennehan, Thomas D. Bennehan, and Duncan Cameron, and lists of enslaved people, all of which are filed in folders 2041-2045.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists reviewed this series to uncover more information about enslaved and free Black people. Folders that include materials related to enslaved and free Black people during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction." People were presumed to be enslaved if identified only by a first name or if described with a racial term (but not otherwise identifed as a free person of color) or as "hands." Receipts that do not identify an enslaved person by name are recorded with the hope that information elsewhere in the collection may help with future identification. Receipts for supplies like hats, shoes, and blankets for enslaved people are only highlighted if explicitly stated for enslaved people; however, it is likely that there are many more receipts for supplies that document slavery.
| Folder 1902 |
Accounts, 1767-1768 |
| Folder 1903 |
Accounts, 1769 |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/93 |
Account, 19 December 1769Johnston & Bennehan with Buchanan & Cuniston. |
| Folder 1904 |
Accounts, 1770 |
| Folder 1905 |
Accounts, 1771Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1906 |
Accounts, 1772Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/92 |
Account, 31 August 1772Johnston & Bennehan with Buchanan & Cunison. |
| Folder 1907 |
Accounts, 1773Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1908 |
1774Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1909 |
Accounts, 1775Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1910 |
Accounts, 1776 |
| Folder 1911 |
Accounts, 1777Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1912 |
Accounts, 1778 |
| Folder 1913 |
Accounts, 1779 |
| Folder 1914 |
Accounts, 1780 |
| Folder 1915 |
Accounts, 1781Records of enslavement:
Also included is a note signed by Captain Thomas Donoho, excusing Richard Bennehan and Hezekial Ferrell from the next draft of the Continental Army as a reward for their apprehension of Peter Macguire and John [Naybear?], who allegedly had deserted from the Maryland Line of the Continental Army. |
| Folder 1916 |
Accounts, 1782 |
| Folder 1917 |
Accounts, 1783Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1918 |
Accounts, 1784Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1919 |
Accounts, 1785 |
| Folder 1920 |
Accounts, 1786 |
| Folder 1921 |
Accounts, 1787 |
| Folder 1922 |
Accounts, 1788 |
| Folder 1923 |
Accounts, 1789Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1924 |
Accounts, 1790 |
| Folder 1925 |
Accounts, 17919 February 1791: David Witherspoon in account with James McKinlay, including an entry for a quart of rum that may have been purchased from an unidentified free Black person. |
| Folder 1926 |
Accounts, 1792 |
| Folder 1927 |
Accounts, 1793 |
| Folder 1928 |
Accounts, 1794 |
| Folder 1929 |
Accounts, 1795 |
| Folder 1930 |
Accounts, 1796Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1931 |
Accounts, 1797Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1932 |
Accounts, 1798 |
| Folder 1933 |
Accounts, 1799Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1934 |
Accounts, 1800 |
| Folder 1935 |
Accounts, 1801Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1936-1937
Folder 1936Folder 1937 |
Accounts, 1802Folder 1936: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1937: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1938-1939
Folder 1938Folder 1939 |
Accounts, 1803Folder 1938: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1939: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1940-1942
Folder 1940Folder 1941Folder 1942 |
Accounts, 1803Folder 1940: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1941: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1942: Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/1 |
Duncan Cameron in account with Gracie Anderson & Co., 12 December 1803 |
Folder 1943-1944
Folder 1943Folder 1944 |
Accounts, 1805Folder 1944: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1945-1946
Folder 1945Folder 1946 |
Accounts, 1806 |
Folder 1947-1948
Folder 1947Folder 1948 |
Accounts, 1807Folder 1947: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1948: records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/2 |
Financial material, 7 June 1807 |
Folder 1949-1950
Folder 1949Folder 1950 |
Accounts, 1808Folder 1949: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1950: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1951 |
Accounts, 1809Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1952 |
Accounts, 1810Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1953 |
Accounts, 1811Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1954 |
Accounts, 1812Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1955 |
Accounts, 1813Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1956 |
Accounts, 1814Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1957 |
Accounts, 1815Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/3 |
Balance sheet, 24 May 1815 |
| Folder 1958 |
Accounts, 1816Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1959 |
Accounts, 1817Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1960-1963
Folder 1960Folder 1961Folder 1962Folder 1963 |
Accounts, 1818Folder 1960: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1961: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1963: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1964 |
Accounts, 1819Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1965 |
Accounts, 1820Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1966-1967
Folder 1966Folder 1967 |
Accounts, 1821Folder 1966: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1967: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1968 |
Accounts, 1822Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1969-1970
Folder 1969Folder 1970 |
Accounts, 1823Folder 1969: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1970: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1971-1972
Folder 1971Folder 1972 |
Accounts, 1824Folder 1971: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1972: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1973-1975
Folder 1973Folder 1974Folder 1975 |
Accounts, 1825Folder 1973: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1974: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1975: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1976-1978
Folder 1976Folder 1977Folder 1978 |
Accounts, 1826Folder 1976: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1977: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1978: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1979-1980
Folder 1979Folder 1980 |
Accounts, 1827Folder 1979: Records of enslavement
Folder 1980: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1981 |
Accounts, 1828Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1982-1983
Folder 1982Folder 1983 |
Accounts, 1829Folder 1983: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1984 |
Accounts, 1830Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1985 |
Accounts, 1831Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 1986 |
Accounts, 1832Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1987-1988
Folder 1987Folder 1988 |
Accounts, 1833Folder 1987: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1988: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1989-1990
Folder 1989Folder 1990 |
Accounts, 1834Folder 1989: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1990: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1991-1993
Folder 1991Folder 1992Folder 1993 |
Accounts, 1835Folder 1992: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1993: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1994-1995
Folder 1994Folder 1995 |
Accounts, 1836Folder 1995: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1996-1998
Folder 1996Folder 1997Folder 1998 |
Accounts, 1837Folder 1997: Records of enslavement:
Folder 1998: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 1999-2000
Folder 1999Folder 2000 |
Accounts, 1838Folder 1999: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2000: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2001-2002
Folder 2001Folder 2002 |
Accounts, 1839Folder 2001: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2002: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2003-2004
Folder 2003Folder 2004 |
Accounts, 1840Folder 2003: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2004: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2005-2006
Folder 2005Folder 2006 |
Accounts, 1841Folder 2005: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2006: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2007-2008
Folder 2007Folder 2008 |
Accounts, 1842Folder 2008: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2009-2010
Folder 2009Folder 2010 |
Accounts, 1843Folder 2009: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2010: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2011-2012
Folder 2011Folder 2012 |
Accounts, 1844Folder 2011: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2012: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2013-2014
Folder 2013Folder 2014 |
Accounts, 1845Folder 2013: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2014: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2015 |
Accounts, 1846Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2016 |
Accounts, 1847Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2017-2018
Folder 2017Folder 2018 |
Accounts, 1848Folder 2017: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2018: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2019-2020
Folder 2019Folder 2020 |
Accounts, 1849Folder 2019: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2020: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2021-2022
Folder 2021Folder 2022 |
Accounts, 1850Folder 2021: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2022: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2023 |
Accounts, 1851 |
Folder 2024-2025
Folder 2024Folder 2025 |
Accounts, 1852Folder 2024: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2026-2027
Folder 2026Folder 2027 |
Accounts, 1853Folder 2026: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2027: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2028 |
Accounts, 1854Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2029-2030
Folder 2029Folder 2030 |
Accounts, 1855Folder 2029: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2030: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2031 |
Accounts, 1856Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2032-2033
Folder 2032Folder 2033 |
Accounts, 1857Folder 2032: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2033: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2034-2035
Folder 2034Folder 2035 |
Accounts, 1858Folder 2034: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2035: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2036-2037
Folder 2036Folder 2037 |
Accounts, 1859Folder 2036: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2037: Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/96 |
Paul C. Cameron, list of goods and prices, New Orleans, La., 14 January 1859 |
Folder 2038-2039
Folder 2038Folder 2039 |
Accounts, 1860Folder 2038: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2039: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2040a |
Accounts, January 1861-March 1861Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2040b |
Tunica County, Miss., Plantation, 1856-1861Chiefly legal documents pertaining to the sale of land and other property in Tunica County, Miss. by Fleming J. McCartney to Samuel Tate of Shelby County, Tenn., and from Tate to Paul C. Cameron, Orange County, N.C. Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2041 |
Richard Bennehan, undated |
| Folder 2042 |
Thomas D. Bennehan, undatedRecords of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2043 |
Duncan Cameron, undatedRecords of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2044 |
Lists of enslaved people, undatedLists identify enslaved people by name and their enslaver (Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron). Family units are indicated by a horizontal line drawn between names on the list. Locations include Fairntosh, Stagville, Eno, Brick House, Paul C. Cameron's, Bobbitt's, Snow Hill, Snow Hill, Jim Ray's, McKissick's, Jones', Hunt's, Fish Dam, Leathers, Little River, North Quarter, and Mill Quarter. There are a few lists that are more of a census of the enslaved adult and children age groups and supplies of blankets, hats, etc. distributed to enslaved people; another list appears to be male heads of household and the number of workers in each family unit. There is a list of enslaved people with their home plantations and who were to be sent South to Alabama and Mississippi. Enslaved people were trafficked from Fairntosh, Snow Hill, Eno, Brick House, Bobbitt's, Eno, Jim Ray's, and McKissack's. Other lists with the names of enslaved people are titled "Alabama," "Left in Mississippi," "Left in Alabama," and "Alabama debt." There is a list of enslaved people titled "William B. Giles, Esq." There are two lists of enslaved people titled "Fairntosh" that include occupation information. The list of 41 enslaved people given to "P.C.C." has been assigned the date of 24 December 1834 following review of the Orange County, N.C. Deed Book 26, page 184. |
| Folder 2045 |
Lists of enslaved people, undatedLists identify enslaved people by name and often include age information. Family unit and location information is less frequently provided. Family units are indicated by horizontal lines drawn between names on the list. Locations include Fairntosh, Bobbitt's, Paul C. Cameron, Snow Hill, Brick House, McKissack's, Jim Ray's, mill quarter/Mill plantation, North plantation, Fish Dam, and Peaksville. |
| Folder 2046 |
April 1861-December 1861Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2047 |
1862Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2048 |
1863Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2049 |
1864Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2050 |
January 1865-April 1865Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2051 |
Accounts, May 1865-December 1865Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2052 |
Accounts, 1866Records of enslavement:
Records of Reconstruction:
|
| Folder 2053 |
Accounts, 1867Records of enslavement:
Records of Reconstruction:
|
| Folder 2054 |
Accounts, 1868Records of Reconstruction:
|
| Folder 2055 |
Accounts, 1869 |
Folder 2056-2057
Folder 2056Folder 2057 |
Accounts, 1870 |
| Folder 2058 |
Accounts, 1871 |
| Folder 2059 |
Accounts, 1872 |
| Folder 2060 |
Accounts, 1873 |
Folder 2061-2062
Folder 2061Folder 2062 |
Accounts, 1874 |
Folder 2063-2064
Folder 2063Folder 2064 |
Accounts, 1875 |
| Folder 2065 |
Accounts, 1876 |
| Folder 2066 |
Accounts, 1877 |
| Folder 2067 |
Accounts, 1878 |
| Folder 2068 |
Accounts, 1879 |
Folder 2069-2070
Folder 2069Folder 2070 |
Accounts, 1880 |
Folder 2071-2073
Folder 2071Folder 2072Folder 2073 |
Accounts, 1881 |
Folder 2074-2075
Folder 2074Folder 2075 |
Accounts, 1882 |
| Folder 2076 |
Accounts, 1883 |
Folder 2077-2078
Folder 2077Folder 2078 |
Accounts, 1884 |
| Folder 2079 |
Accounts, 1885 |
| Folder 2080 |
Accounts, 1886 |
| Folder 2081 |
Accounts, 1887-1889 |
| Folder 2082 |
Accounts, 1890-1894 |
| Folder 2083 |
Accounts, 1901-1908 |
| Folder 2084 |
Accounts, 1909-1942 |
| Folder 2085 |
Paul C. Cameron |
| Folder 2086 |
Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai and Mildred C. Cameron |
Folder 2087-2088
Folder 2087Folder 2088 |
Miscellaneous |
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Subseries 2.2. Deeds and Indentures, 1772-1908 and undated.
Deeds, indentures, and grants documenting the trafficking of enslaved people and the transfer of Cameron lands. The bulk of these papers represent transactions involving either Richard Bennehan or Duncan Cameron, and sometimes both. Some documents pertaining to transactions involving Thomas D. Bennehan, Paul C. Cameron, and other family members are also included.
Subseries 3.1 Client Files of Duncan Cameron include deeds not involving the Cameron family. Many enslaved people are documented in the client files.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists reviewed this series to uncover more information about enslaved and free Black people. Folders that include materials related to enslaved and free Black people during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction." People were presumed to be enslaved if identified only by a first name or if described with a racial term (but not otherwise identifed as a free person of color) or as "hands."
| Folder 2089 |
Deeds and indentures, 1772-1799Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/101 |
Indenture, 24 January 1776Formerly OP-133/4; this number is no longer in use. Land in Orange County, N.C., sold by Tyree Harris and Mary Ann Harris to Richard Bennehan. In two pieces. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/63 |
Indenture, 1779Land in Caswell County, N.C., sold to Osborne Jefferys. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/100 |
Indenture, 31 August 1786Formerly OP-133/5; this number is no longer in use. Land in Orange County, N.C., sold by James Freeland, sheriff, to Richard Bennehan. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/6 |
Indenture, 27 February 1787Land in Orange County, N.C., sold by Judith Stag to Richard Bennehan. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/66 |
Indenture, 10 July 1788Rosanna Baxter. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/69 |
Indenture, 16 January 1795Walter Alves. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/11 |
Indenture, 28 November 1796Indenture for land sold by the Trustees of the University of North Carolina to Richard Bennehan. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/7 |
Indenture, 19 January 1798266 acres of land in Orange County, N.C., sold by Walter Alves and Amelia Alves to Richard Bennehan. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/8 |
Indenture, 19 January 1798266 acres of land in Orange County, N.C., sold by Walter Alves and Amelia Alves to Richard Bennehan; second copy. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/71 |
Indenture, March 1799Land in Orange County, N.C., sold to William Lingo. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/9 |
Grant, 26 November 1799From the state of North Carolina to Richard Bennehan for 247 acres in Orange County, N.C. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/10 |
Indenture, 28 November 1799Land in Orange County, N.C., sold by the Trustees of the University of North Carolina to Richard Bennehan. |
| Folder 2090 |
Deeds and indentures, 1800-1809Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/13 |
Indenture, 16 April 1801xLand in Orange County, N.C., sold by Anthony Ricketts to Richard Bennehan. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/72 |
Indenture, 22 December 1801Land in Orange County, N.C., sold by William Waite, Person County, N.C., to John Tilley Jr., Orange County, N.C. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/12 |
Indenture, 23 December 1801Land in Orange County, N.C., sold by John Tilley Jr. to Richard Bennehan. |
| Folder 2091 |
Deeds and indentures, 1810-1816Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/14 |
Indenture, 19 September 1812Land sold in Orange County, N.C., by Walter Alves to Richard Bennehan. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/15 |
Indenture, 6 November 1812Land sold in Orange County, N.C., by Walter Alves to Thomas D. Bennehan. |
| Folder 2092 |
Deeds and indentures, 1817-1819 |
| Folder 2093 |
Deeds and indentures, 1820-1823Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/16 |
Grant, 15 August 1822Land in Orange County, N.C., sold by the State of North Carolina to Thomas D. Bennehan, with attached plat. |
| Folder 2094 |
Deeds and indentures, 1824-1826Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2095 |
Deeds and indentures, 1830-1833Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2096 |
Deeds and indentures, 1834-1838 |
| Folder 2097 |
Deeds and indentures, 1841-1857 |
| Folder 2098 |
Deeds and indentures, 1866-1869Records of Reconstruction:
|
| Folder 2099 |
Deeds and indentures, 1870-1879 |
| Folder 2100 |
Deeds and indentures, 1881-1888 |
| Folder 2101 |
Deeds and indentures, 1902-1908 and undated |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/102 |
Indenture, undatedLand sold, possibly by James Freeland to Richard Bennehan. |
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Subseries 2.3. Surveys and Land Plats, 1761-1937 and undated.
Surveys and plats of Cameron lands. The bulk of these surveys and plats were commissioned by either Richard Bennehan or Duncan Cameron and date from 1761 to the 1820s. Later survey maps were commissioned by Paul Cameron or his estate. For other Cameron maps, see Subseries 2.6. For survey books, see Subseries 6.8.
| Folder 2102 |
Surveys and land plats, 1761-1799 |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/17 |
Map, circa 1792Downtown Raleigh, "Union Square," with lots 140, 141, 156, and 157 marked "RB." Laminated. |
| Folder 2103 |
Surveys and land plats, 1801-1812 |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/18 |
Survey for Richard Bennehan, 20 March 1804 |
| Folder 2104 |
Surveys and land plats, 1813-1830 |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/19 |
"Plot of Survey Walter Alves heirs to Duncan Cameron," 16 January 1821 |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/24 |
Survey map, 26 October 1824Person County, for Duncan Cameron, hand-drawn by Phillips Moore. |
| Folder 2105 |
Surveys and land plats, 1831-1946 |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/75 |
Map and survey, 1852White Hall, Arnaudlia, and Lake Place Plantations. Concordia Parish, La. Printed. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/76 |
Map, March 1881Tract of land lying North of Chapel Hill, N.C. Survey by Professor R.H. Graves. Hand drawn. Enclosure dated 24 February 1883. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/77 |
Map of land east of Chapel Hill, N.C., July 1882R.H. Graves, Surveyor. Enclosure dated 24 February 1883. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/20 |
"Map of Honorable Paul C. Cameron's Land on Flat, Eno, and Neuse Rivers in Durham, Wake, and Granville Counties," March 1890Survey of J.G. McDuffie, white on black. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/21 |
Map, March 1917Snowhill Plantation. Survey by Sno. K. Strange. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/22 |
Map, December 1920"Proposed Subdivision of Snowhill Plantation - Durham County, N.C." Drawn by Blair and Drane, Inc., Charlotte, N.C. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/23 |
Map, October 1921"Subdivisions of Snowhill Plantation, Durham County, N.C. - The Property of the Heirs of Annie R. Collins." Plat and areas by Blair and Drane, Inc. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/25 |
Map, July 1937"Showing in Part of Timbered Land, Fairntosh Plantation." |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/26 |
Map, December 1946Division line, Fairntosh Farm. |
| Folder 2106 |
Surveys and land plats, undated |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/27 |
Tract of land between Little River and Flat River, undated |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/28 |
Tract of land, undated |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/29 |
Map, undatedPaul C. Cameron's land on Flat, Eno, and Neuse Rivers in Durham, Wake, and Granville Counties. See also XOP-133/30a-b. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/30A |
Map, undatedMap of Honorable Paul C. Cameron's land on Flat, Eno, and Neuse Rivers in Durham, Wake, and Granville Counties. Blueprint. See also XOP-133/29. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/30B |
Map, undatedMap of Honorable Paul C. Cameron's land on Flat, Eno, and Neuse Rivers in Durham, Wake, and Granville Counties. Second Copy. See also XOP-133/29. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/31 |
Map, undatedTracts on Flat and Little Rivers, hand-drawn, laminated. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/32 |
Plan of sundry tracts of land on Little River, undatedHand-drawn, laminated. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/33 |
Land survey, undatedA large area in Durham County, N.C. Tracts marked I-VIII. No legend. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/34 |
Survey, undatedTract of land belonging to Richard Bennehan on Flat River. |
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Subseries 2.4. Tax Lists and Receipts, 1770-1941 and undated.
Tax lists and receipts documenting county, town, city, and federal property taxes paid by various members of the Cameron family over a period of 150 years. The bulk of the material relates to Orange County, N.C., taxes, with some material relating to Hillsborough, N.C., town taxes and Raleigh, N.C., city taxes. There are a few tax lists for federal direct taxes, as well as for "in kind" taxes levied by the Confederacy during the Civil War. Also included are a few receipts and lists documenting taxes paid on Cameron property in Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.
Of note are the tax lists of people enslaved by Richard Bennehan and Thomas D. Bennehan in Orange County, N.C., from 1770 through the 1830s. These inventories frequently identify the enslaved people by name and age, and sometimes by geographic location and family unit. The tax lists also enumerate land holdings, livestock, and farm equipment. Duncan and Paul C. Cameron's tax records include some detailed lists but primarily consist of receipts documenting only the amount of tax paid.
See Subseries 2.1, 2.6, 2.7, and 2.9 for more information about enslaved people claimed as property by the Camerons.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists reviewed this series to uncover more information about enslaved and free Black people. Folders that include materials related to enslaved and free Black people during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction." People were presumed to be enslaved if identified only by a first name or if described with a racial term (but not otherwise identifed as a free person of color) or as "hands."
| Folder 2107 |
Tax lists (Richard Bennehan), 1770-1789Enslaved people are identified by name and categorized by age range on some tax lists. Also included is one tax list, 1786, for the estate of William Johnston in which 12 enslaved people are identified by name and categorized by age range. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/104 |
Tax list (Richard Bennehan), 25 July 1780Formerly OP-133/88; this number is no longer in use. Enslaved people are not identified by name on this tax list. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/105 |
Tax list (Richard Bennehan), August 1782Formerly OP-133/89; this number is no longer in use. Enslaved people are not identified by name on this tax list. |
| Folder 2108 |
Tax lists (Richard Bennehan), 1790-1802Enslaved people are identified by name and age on tax lists. |
| Folder 2109 |
Tax lists (Richard Bennehan, Duncan Cameron), 1803-1809Orange County, N.C. Enslaved people are identified by name and age on tax lists. |
| Folder 2110 |
Tax lists (Richard Bennehan, Thomas D. Bennehan, Duncan Cameron), 1810-1819Orange County, N.C.; Wake County, N.C. Enslaved people are identified by name and age on tax lists. |
| Folder 2111 |
Tax lists (Richard Bennehan, Duncan Cameron), 1820-1825Orange County, N.C. In 1821, Duncan Cameron claimed 50 enslaved people as taxable property in Orange County; by 1825, he claimed 95 people. Enslaved people are identified by name and age on tax lists. Enslaved people appear to be listed in groups, possibly by unidentified locations, on tax lists for Duncan Cameron in 1821 and 1825. |
| Folder 2112 |
Tax lists (Thomas D. Bennehan, Duncan Cameron), 1826-1829Orange County, N.C. Enslaved people are identified by name and age on some tax lists. People enslaved by Duncan Cameron are sometimes in lists ordered by location (Eno, Home Place, Brick House, Snow Hill). An 1827 list of people enslaved at Fish Dam identifies matrilineal relationships. |
| Folder 2113 |
Tax lists (Thomas D. Bennehan, Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron), 1830-1835Orange County, N.C.; Person County, N.C. Enslaved people are identified by name and age on some tax lists. Enslaved people are grouped by location (Stagville, Little River, Fish Dam) and family in an 1830 tax list for Thomas D. Bennehan. At Stagville, some people are listed under "old shop family" and "kitchen." |
| Folder 2114 |
Tax lists (Thomas D. Bennehan, Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron), 1836-1839Orange County, N.C.; Person County, N.C. Enslaved people are identified by name and age on some tax lists. |
| Folder 2115 |
Tax lists (Thomas D. Bennehan, Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron), 1840-1845Orange County, N.C.; Person County, N.C. Enslaved people are identified by name on some tax lists. An 1842 tax list noted locations: Fairntosh, Eno, Brick House, Bobbitt's, Snow Hill, Jim Ray's, Walnut Hill (Person County), Hickory Hill, and "House Servants." |
| Folder 2116 |
Tax lists (Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron), 1846-1849Orange County, N.C.; Person County, N.C.; Greene County, Ala. Enslaved people are not identified by name on tax lists in this folder. |
| Folder 2117 |
Tax lists (Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron), 1850-1859Orange County, N.C.; Person County, N.C.; Tunica County, Miss. Enslaved people are not identified by name on tax lists in this folder. |
| Folder 2118 |
Tax lists (Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron, Thomas A. Cameron), 1860-1865Orange County, N.C.; Tunica County, Miss. Enslaved people are not identified by name on tax lists in this folder. |
| Folder 2119 |
Tax lists, 1866-1869 |
| Folder 2120 |
Tax lists, 1870-1879 |
| Folder 2121 |
Tax lists, 1880-1899 |
| Folder 2122 |
Tax lists, 1900-1941 |
| Folder 2123 |
Tax lists (Thomas D. Bennehan, Duncan Cameron, Mildred C. Cameron, Thomas A. Cameron), UndatedA tax list circa 1834-1840 for Duncan Cameron includes enslaved people who are identified by name. |
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Subseries 2.5. Promissory Notes and Bonds, 1772-1889.
Promissory notes and bonds documenting money lent by members of the Cameron family to each other and to overseers, craftsmen, neighbors, friends, and relatives. Also included are notes and bonds documenting loans made to the Cameron family.
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Subseries 2.6. Estate Papers, 1804-1942.
Arrangement: alphabetical by name.
Receipts, bills, statements, maps, lists of enslaved people, correspondence, and other materials relating to the settlement of the estates of members of the Cameron family. The arrangement of this subseries reflects the arrangement of these papers when they arrived at Wilson Library. The papers pertaining to each estate were in labeled bundles or envelopes. Each set of papers presumably was collected by the family member who was the executor of the estate. The estate papers of Thomas Bennehan and Duncan Cameron are especially complete.
Also included in this subseries are the estate papers of William Johnston, collected by Richard Bennehan who was Johnston's business partner and the executor of his estate.
See Subseries 6.9 for volumes relating to Cameron estates.
See Subseries 2.7 for wills made by members of the Cameron family.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists reviewed this series to uncover more information about enslaved and free Black people. Folders that include materials related to enslaved and free Black people during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction." People were presumed to be enslaved if identified only by a first name or if described with a racial term (but not otherwise identifed as a free person of color) or as "hands."
| Folder 2151 |
Estate papers: Thomas Amis, 1804, 1808, undated |
| Folder 2152 |
Estate papers: Daniel Anderson, 1813, 1816 |
Folder 2153-2156
Folder 2153Folder 2154Folder 2155Folder 2156 |
Estate papers: Thomas D. Bennehan, 1847-1849Folder 2153: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2154: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2155: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2156: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2157 |
Estate papers: William Bennehan, circa 1807-1812 |
| Folder 2158 |
Estate papers: Ann Nash Cameron, 1815-1837Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2159 |
Estate papers: Anne Ruffin Cameron, 1901, 1942 |
Folder 2160-2166
Folder 2160Folder 2161Folder 2162Folder 2163Folder 2164Folder 2165Folder 2166 |
Estate papers: Duncan Cameron, 1816-1853Folder 2160: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2161: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2162: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2163: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2164: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2165: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2166: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2167 |
Estate papers: Mildred C. Cameron, 1882 |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/35 |
Estate papers: Inventory of the estate of Mildred C. Cameron by Paul C. Cameron, May 1882 |
| Folder 2168 |
Estate papers: Paul C. Cameron, 1925-1939 |
| Folder 2169 |
Estate papers: Thomas A. Cameron, 1870 |
| Folder 2170 |
Estate papers: Anne Ruffin Collins,1941-1942 |
| Folder 2171 |
Estate papers: William Johnston, 1785-1786Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2172-2173
Folder 2172Folder 2173 |
Estate papers: George W. Mordecai, 1854-1874Folder 2173: Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2174 |
Estate papers: Margaret B. Cameron Mordecai, circa 1850-1886Records of enslavement:
|
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Subseries 2.7. Wills, 1764-1891.
Arrangement: alphabetical by name.
Chiefly manuscript copies of wills of members of the Cameron family, and a typescript copy of Paul C. Cameron's will. Also included are wills of more distant relatives, Thomas Amis, Daniel Anderson, and several members of the Ruffin family. The will of Elizabeth Laws who left the enslaved people she claimed as property to Thomas D. Bennehan, is also included in this subseries.
The terms of Thomas D. Bennehan's will and Duncan Cameron's will represent some of the most significant disruptions experienced by the communities of people enslaved by the Bennehan and Cameron families. While family units were preserved, extended kinship networks at and across plantations were broken when people were forcibly moved.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists reviewed this series to uncover more information about enslaved and free Black people. Folders that include materials related to enslaved and free Black people during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction." People were presumed to be enslaved if identified only by a first name or if described with a racial term (but not otherwise identifed as a free person of color) or as "hands."
| Folder 2175 |
Wills: Thomas AmisRecords of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2176 |
Wills: Daniel AndersonRecords of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/91 |
Wills: Daniel Anderson, 12 June 1807Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2177 |
Wills: Richard Bennehan |
| Folder 2178a |
Wills: Thomas D. BennehanRecords of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2178b |
Wills: Anne Ruffin CameronRecords of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2179 |
Wills: Duncan CameronRecords of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2180 |
Wills: John A. Cameron |
Folder 2181-2182
Folder 2181Folder 2182 |
Wills: Paul C. CameronFolder 2181: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2182: records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2183 |
Wills: Elizabeth LawsRecords of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2184 |
Wills: Annie M. Ruffin |
| Folder 2185 |
Wills: Thomas RuffinRecords of enslavement:
|
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Subseries 2.8. Insurance, 1820-1889.
Chiefly policies for fire insurance on buildings owned by the Cameron family, with a few statements and advertising cards from various insurance companies. Included are fire insurance policies for Saint Mary's School in Raleigh, N.C. See Series 1 for correspondence dealing with Saint Mary's School. Also see Subseries 2.1 and 5.1 for other material about Saint Mary's School.
| Folder 2186 |
Insurance, 1820-1829 |
| Folder 2187 |
Insurance, 1830-1839 |
| Folder 2188 |
Insurance, 1840-1859 |
| Folder 2189 |
Insurance, 1860-1869 |
| Folder 2190 |
Insurance, 1870-1875 |
| Folder 2191 |
Insurance, 1876-1879 |
| Folder 2192 |
Insurance, 1880-1885 |
| Folder 2193 |
Insurance, 1886-1889 |
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Subseries 2.9. Other Family Financial and Legal Papers, 1769-1941.
Arrangement: alphabetical by type of item, then chronological.
Advertisements, agreements, appointments, appraisals, certifications, Confederate bonds, court papers, licenses, a marriage settlement, memoranda, a presidential pardon, powers of attorney, releases, stock certificates, stockholder lists, and writs.
Advertisements chiefly consist of broadsides advertising the services of Cameron stud horses, including the renowned race horse Sir Archie. Also advertised is the sale of Cameron livestock and the availability of Cameron lands for lease to tenant farmers.
Legal agreements between members of the Cameron family and those with whom they did business include contracts, covenants, leases, and articles of agreement. Of particular note are antebellum agreements to formalize Duncan Cameron's business partnerships, especially with Richard and Thomas D. Bennehan; to traffic enslaved people and transfer land, sometimes in relation to debt repayment; and during Reconstruction to contract with field workers, sharecroppers, and tenant farmers, some of whom were formerly enslaved by Cameron family members. The contracts typically were for a year and dictated terms both financial and behavioural.
Other agreements include Duncan Cameron's contract to write a book summarizing cases decided by the Court of Conference, to be published by Joseph Gales; Paul C. Cameron's agreement with Horner and Graves to rent them land in Hillsborough, N.C., for a high school; and a lease for Saint Mary's School and a heating contract for Saint Mary's.
There are several appraisals and dozens of bills of sale for enslaved people. The bills of sale are for individuals and groups of enslaved people, for adults, children, and sometimes for family units, or partial family units. The pace of human trafficking through purchase of enslaved people, chiefly by Duncan Cameron and Thomas D. Bennehan, was greatest between 1810 and 1830. During the 1820s, there are a few examples of larger groups of people being trafficked between the Camerons and the Bennehans. Most trafficking took place within Orange County, N.C., and to a lesser extent from Amelia County, Va., and Granville and Person counties into Orange County, N.C.
There are similar bill of sale records for livestock. Also included are certifications of horses' pedigrees and of proofs of distilled liquor, and an 1838 document certifying that Duncan Cameron paid off a debt on behalf of "the Episcopal School in Raleigh" (the Episcopal School of North Carolina).
Manuscript copies of official court documents pertaining to court cases or legal actions involving the Camerons are included.
There are a few licenses giving the Camerons permission to distill spirits as well as a license allowing George Mordecai to have two gates across a highway on his land.
The marriage settlement between Margaret B. Cameron and George Mordecai is included, as is Paul C. Cameron's presidential pardon absolving him of his support for the Confederacy.
There are also a number of routine legal documents filed in this subseries: powers of attorney, chiefly granting out of state lawyers power to handle matters concerning Cameron lands; memoranda; releases freeing members of the Cameron family from financial obligations; and writs demanding payment of debt.
Stock and bond certificates and stockholder lists document the family's extensive financial holdings. Included among the stock and bond certificates are Confederate bonds purchased by Paul C. Cameron with Aldert and Bennet Smedes, directors of Saint Mary's School. The bulk of the Cameron's stock holdings was in banks, railroads, and insurance companies. For other stock lists, see Volumes 195-197. For more information about the Camerons involvement in banks and railroads in North Carolina, see Subseries 5.2 and 5.9.
Processing note: in 2023, archivists reviewed this series to uncover more information about enslaved and free Black people. Folders that include materials related to enslaved and free Black people during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction." People were presumed to be enslaved if identified only by a first name or if described with a racial term (but not otherwise identifed as a free person of color) or as "hands."
| Folder 2194 |
Advertisements, 1792-1887 |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/87 |
Advertisement for the horse, Sir Archie, undated |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/36 |
Advertisement by Thomas D. Bennehan for Young Sir Archie, a stud horse, 10 March 1830Printed. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/37 |
Advertisement by Thomas D. Bennehan for Character, a stud horse, 18 March 1832Printed. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/38 |
Advertisement by Thomas D. Bennehan, on behalf of John Ray, for Conqueror, a stud horse, 12 March 1833Printed. |
| Folder 2195 |
Agreements, 1775-1810Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2196 |
Agreements, 1811-1859Record of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2197 |
Agreements, 1860-1869Records of Reconstruction (1865-1877):
Also includes contracts with white farmers who leased land from the Camerons, including Bradshaw, Durham, Green, Franklin, Lashly, Morris, Oberry (Alabama) Straughn, Turrentine, and others. |
| Folder 2198 |
Agreements, 1870-1879Record of Reconstruction (1865-1877)
Also includes contracts with white farmers who leased land from the Camerons, including Clemmons/Clements (Blue Hill); Copley, Hall, and Stanley (Snow Hill); Graves and Horner (Barracks); Hines; Lipscomb and Woods; Rodgers (Eno); Tilley (Buffalo Place); and others |
| Folder 2199 |
Agreements, 1880-1889 |
| Folder 2200 |
Appointments, 1845-1848 |
| Folder 2201 |
Appraisals, 1808-1877Records of enslavement:
Also includes valuations of land and personal property. |
| Folder 2202 |
Bills of Sale, 1769-1809Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2203 |
Bills of Sale, 1810-1819Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2204 |
Bills of Sale, 1820-1854Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2205 |
Certifications, 1792-1872 |
| Folder 2206 |
Confederate Bonds, 1864 |
| Folder 2207 |
Licenses, 1815-1870 |
| Folder 2208 |
Marriage settlement of Margaret B. Cameron and George W. Mordecai, 1853 |
| Folder 2209 |
Memoranda, 1783-1861Includes an investment proposal for a superphosphate factory in eastern North Carolina. Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2210 |
Miscellaneous, 1785-1869Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 2211 |
Miscellaneous, 1870-1921 |
| Folder 2212 |
Petition for Presidential Pardon, 1865-1866 |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/39 |
Presidential pardon by Andrew Johnson of Paul C. Cameron for taking part in the Civil War, 28 September 1865 |
| Folder 2213 |
Powers of Attorney, 1826-1941 |
| Folder 2214 |
Releases, 1828-1883 |
| Folder 2215 |
Stock Certificates, 1838-1895 |
| Folder 2216 |
Stockholder Lists, 1819-1889 |
| Folder 2217 |
Writs, 1804-1816, 1818-1889 |
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Series 3. Duncan Cameron's Legal Papers, 1797-1837 and undated.
Case and client files, dockets, correspondence, and forms documenting Duncan Cameron's legal practice. Enslaved people who were claimed as property are documented in Series 3.1 Client Files, where they are most often mentioned in cases of contested property.
See Series 1 for correspondence from clients.
See Subseries 6.10 for other documentation of Duncan Cameron's legal practice.
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Subseries 3.1. Client Files, 1797-1830s.
Arrangement: alphabetical by client.
Deeds, depositions, case notes, statements, receipts, and other legal papers which do not pertain to members of the Cameron family. The bulk of this material was generated by Duncan Cameron in his law practice and concerns services rendered to clients. Many enslaved people are documented in this subseries. Some material may relate to cases Cameron heard as a Superior Court judge. Other items may have come into the family's possession in the course of land transactions.
Duncan Cameron's legal work on behalf of clients represented in these papers includes debt collection, drawing up legal documents such as wills and deeds, administering and settling estates, and representing clients in court. Cameron collected debts for North Carolina and Virginia merchants. Materials relating to Watson and Ebenezer Stott Company, Gracie Anderson Company, and Buchanan Dunlop Company are particularly numerous.
Many of Cameron's friends, neighbors, and employees also turned to him for legal aid, including Joseph Gales, Bishop John Ravenscroft, Young Dortch, Richard Henderson, Walter Alves and many others. The settlement of the estate of Absolum Tatum, a Tennessee resident, is the most completely documented of Duncan Cameron's accounts in this subseries. Cameron worked on the account with two other North Carolina lawyers, Abram Maury and Samuel Goodwin.
For letters from clients and other lawyers, as well as for occasional manuscript copies of Duncan Cameron's outgoing correspondence relating to his legal business, see Series 1.
For documentation of fees paid Cameron, see Subseries 2.1.
For volumes relating to Duncan Cameron's legal practice, see Series 6.
Processing notes:
The arrangement of this subseries and the appellation "client files" are artificial and were imposed during processing. Papers are filed under the name of the person or company with which the documents are primarily concerned, i.e. the "client". There are exceptions: when the papers pertain to a court case, the documents are filed under the defendant's name. When a document mentions two parties, as with a deed, the document is filed under the first party's name.
In 2023, archivists reviewed this series to uncover more information about enslaved and free Black people. Folders that include materials related to enslaved and free Black people during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement" or "Records of Reconstruction." People were presumed to be enslaved if identified only by a first name or if described with a racial term (but not otherwise identifed as a free person of color) or as "hands."
Folder 2218-2252
Folder 2218Folder 2219Folder 2220Folder 2221Folder 2222Folder 2223Folder 2224Folder 2225Folder 2226Folder 2227Folder 2228Folder 2229Folder 2230Folder 2231Folder 2232Folder 2233Folder 2234Folder 2235Folder 2236Folder 2237Folder 2238Folder 2239Folder 2240Folder 2241Folder 2242Folder 2243Folder 2244Folder 2245Folder 2246Folder 2247Folder 2248Folder 2249Folder 2250Folder 2251Folder 2252 |
Client files: AFolder 2222: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2226: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2227: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2245: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2247: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2248: Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/70 |
Client files: A, 20 December 1796Indenture between Lodwick Alford and David Malone. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/73 |
Client files: A, 18 September 1812Indenture between Walter and Amelia Alves and Richard Henderson, 5075 acres in Orange County, N.C. Encapsulated. |
| Extra Oversize Paper XOP-133/74 |
Client files: A, 18 September 1812Indenture between Walter Alves and Richard Henderson, 5075 acres in Orange County, N.C. Second copy. Encapsulated. |
Folder 2253-2376
Folder 2253Folder 2254Folder 2255Folder 2256Folder 2257Folder 2258Folder 2259Folder 2260Folder 2261Folder 2262Folder 2263Folder 2264Folder 2265Folder 2266Folder 2267Folder 2268Folder 2269Folder 2270Folder 2271Folder 2272Folder 2273Folder 2274Folder 2275Folder 2276Folder 2277Folder 2278Folder 2279Folder 2280Folder 2281Folder 2282Folder 2283Folder 2284Folder 2285Folder 2286Folder 2287Folder 2288Folder 2289Folder 2290Folder 2291Folder 2292Folder 2293Folder 2294Folder 2295Folder 2296Folder 2297Folder 2298Folder 2299Folder 2300Folder 2301Folder 2302Folder 2303Folder 2304Folder 2305Folder 2306Folder 2307Folder 2308Folder 2309Folder 2310Folder 2311Folder 2312Folder 2313Folder 2314Folder 2315Folder 2316Folder 2317Folder 2318Folder 2319Folder 2320Folder 2321Folder 2322Folder 2323Folder 2324Folder 2325Folder 2326Folder 2327Folder 2328Folder 2329Folder 2330Folder 2331Folder 2332Folder 2333Folder 2334Folder 2335Folder 2336Folder 2337Folder 2338Folder 2339Folder 2340Folder 2341Folder 2342Folder 2343Folder 2344Folder 2345Folder 2346Folder 2347Folder 2348Folder 2349Folder 2350Folder 2351Folder 2352Folder 2353Folder 2354Folder 2355Folder 2356Folder 2357Folder 2358Folder 2359Folder 2360Folder 2361Folder 2362Folder 2363Folder 2364Folder 2365Folder 2366Folder 2367Folder 2368Folder 2369Folder 2370Folder 2371Folder 2372Folder 2373Folder 2374Folder 2375Folder 2376 |
Client files: BFolder 2269: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2271: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2275: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2276: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2280: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2281: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2288: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2292: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2294: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2299: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2312: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2326: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2330: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2342: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2343: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2347: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2351: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2352: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2354: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2356: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2360: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2361: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2366: Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/40 |
Client files: B, 17 August 1765Indenture between Patrick Bogan and John Ray, 225 acres in Orange County, N.C. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/46 |
Client files: B, 18 August 1760Indenture between Margaret Boggan and James Boggan. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/48 |
Client files: B, 22 July 1762Indenture between Patrick Bogan and John Ray. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/49 |
Client files: B, 19 January 1763Indenture between James Bogan and Olsson Martin. |
Folder 2377-2436
Folder 2377Folder 2378Folder 2379Folder 2380Folder 2381Folder 2382Folder 2383Folder 2384Folder 2385Folder 2386Folder 2387Folder 2388Folder 2389Folder 2390Folder 2391Folder 2392Folder 2393Folder 2394Folder 2395Folder 2396Folder 2397Folder 2398Folder 2399Folder 2400Folder 2401Folder 2402Folder 2403Folder 2404Folder 2405Folder 2406Folder 2407Folder 2408Folder 2409Folder 2410Folder 2411Folder 2412Folder 2413Folder 2414Folder 2415Folder 2416Folder 2417Folder 2418Folder 2419Folder 2420Folder 2421Folder 2422Folder 2423Folder 2424Folder 2425Folder 2426Folder 2427Folder 2428Folder 2429Folder 2430Folder 2431Folder 2432Folder 2433Folder 2434Folder 2435Folder 2436 |
Client files: C-CleFolder 2389: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2392: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2408: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2427: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2437-2466
Folder 2437Folder 2438Folder 2439Folder 2440Folder 2441Folder 2442Folder 2443Folder 2444Folder 2445Folder 2446Folder 2447Folder 2448Folder 2449Folder 2450Folder 2451Folder 2452Folder 2453Folder 2454Folder 2455Folder 2456Folder 2457Folder 2458Folder 2459Folder 2460Folder 2461Folder 2462Folder 2463Folder 2464Folder 2465Folder 2466 |
Client files: Cli-CuFolder 2440: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2455: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2460: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2463: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2464: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2466: Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/54 |
Client files: Cli-Cu, 7 June 1773Indenture between William Cothrell and McCall Elliot, probably Orange County, N.C. land. Laminated. |
Folder 2467-2541
Folder 2467Folder 2468Folder 2469Folder 2470Folder 2471Folder 2472Folder 2473Folder 2474Folder 2475Folder 2476Folder 2477Folder 2478Folder 2479Folder 2480Folder 2481Folder 2482Folder 2483Folder 2484Folder 2485Folder 2486Folder 2487Folder 2488Folder 2489Folder 2490Folder 2491Folder 2492Folder 2493Folder 2494Folder 2495Folder 2496Folder 2497Folder 2498Folder 2499Folder 2500Folder 2501Folder 2502Folder 2503Folder 2504Folder 2505Folder 2506Folder 2507Folder 2508Folder 2509Folder 2510Folder 2511Folder 2512Folder 2513Folder 2514Folder 2515Folder 2516Folder 2517Folder 2518Folder 2519Folder 2520Folder 2521Folder 2522Folder 2523Folder 2524Folder 2525Folder 2526Folder 2527Folder 2528Folder 2529Folder 2530Folder 2531Folder 2532Folder 2533Folder 2534Folder 2535Folder 2536Folder 2537Folder 2538Folder 2539Folder 2540Folder 2541 |
Client files: DFolder 2471: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2475: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2486: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2490: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2502: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2503: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2510: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2514: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2515: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2518: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2525: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2537: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2538: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2539: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2541: Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/68 |
Client files: D, 25 March 1790Indenture between Robert Dickins and John Commons, 319 acres in Caswell County. |
Folder 2542-2559
Folder 2542Folder 2543Folder 2544Folder 2545Folder 2546Folder 2547Folder 2548Folder 2549Folder 2550Folder 2551Folder 2552Folder 2553Folder 2554Folder 2555Folder 2556Folder 2557Folder 2558Folder 2559 |
Client files: EFolder 2542: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2543: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2545: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2547: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2550: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2555: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2558: Records of enslavement:
|
Folder 2560-2588
Folder 2560Folder 2561Folder 2562Folder 2563Folder 2564Folder 2565Folder 2566Folder 2567Folder 2568Folder 2569Folder 2570Folder 2571Folder 2572Folder 2573Folder 2574Folder 2575Folder 2576Folder 2577Folder 2578Folder 2579Folder 2580Folder 2581Folder 2582Folder 2583Folder 2584Folder 2585Folder 2586Folder 2587Folder 2588 |
Client files: FFolder 2576: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2588: Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/56 |
Client files: F, 22 December 1773Indenture between William Fletcher and McCall Elliot, 400 acres in Orange County, N.C. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/64 |
Client files: F, 23 May 1786Indenture between James Freeland and Edward Harris. |
Folder 2589-2643
Folder 2589Folder 2590Folder 2591Folder 2592Folder 2593Folder 2594Folder 2595Folder 2596Folder 2597Folder 2598Folder 2599Folder 2600Folder 2601Folder 2602Folder 2603Folder 2604Folder 2605Folder 2606Folder 2607Folder 2608Folder 2609Folder 2610Folder 2611Folder 2612Folder 2613Folder 2614Folder 2615Folder 2616Folder 2617Folder 2618Folder 2619Folder 2620Folder 2621Folder 2622Folder 2623Folder 2624Folder 2625Folder 2626Folder 2627Folder 2628Folder 2629Folder 2630Folder 2631Folder 2632Folder 2633Folder 2634Folder 2635Folder 2636Folder 2637Folder 2638Folder 2639Folder 2640Folder 2641Folder 2642Folder 2643 |
Client files: GFolder 2593: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2614: Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/41 |
Client files: G, 26 April 1753Indenture with attached plat, between Earl Granville and John Dunnagen, 640 acres in Granville County, N.C. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/42 |
Client files: G, 8 May 1756Indenture with attached plat, between Earl Granville and Osborne Jeffreys, 302 acres in Orange County, N.C. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/43 |
Client files: G, 12 May 1755Indenture with attached plat, between Earl Granville and Osborne Jeffreys, 126 acres in Orange County, N.C. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/57 |
Client files: G, 15 February 1775Indenture between John Garrand and James Harris, 200 acres in Orange County, N.C. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/59 |
Client files: G, 12 May 1755Indenture between Earl Granville and Osborne Jeffreys, 65 acres in Orange County, N.C. |
Folder 2644-2703
Folder 2644Folder 2645Folder 2646Folder 2647Folder 2648Folder 2649Folder 2650Folder 2651Folder 2652Folder 2653Folder 2654Folder 2655Folder 2656Folder 2657Folder 2658Folder 2659Folder 2660Folder 2661Folder 2662Folder 2663Folder 2664Folder 2665Folder 2666Folder 2667Folder 2668Folder 2669Folder 2670Folder 2671Folder 2672Folder 2673Folder 2674Folder 2675Folder 2676Folder 2677Folder 2678Folder 2679Folder 2680Folder 2681Folder 2682Folder 2683Folder 2684Folder 2685Folder 2686Folder 2687Folder 2688Folder 2689Folder 2690Folder 2691Folder 2692Folder 2693Folder 2694Folder 2695Folder 2696Folder 2697Folder 2698Folder 2699Folder 2700Folder 2701Folder 2702Folder 2703 |
Client files: H-HendFolder 2645: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2649: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2655: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2656: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2677: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2682: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2686: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2700: Records of enslavement:
Folder 2702: Records of enslavement:
|
| Oversize Paper OP-133/45 |
Client files: H-Hend, 2 February 1760Indenture between Thomas Harris and Tyree Harris, 200 acres in Orange County, N.C. This land eventually was bought by Richard Bennehan. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/51 |
Client files: He-Hend, 5 May 1767Indenture between Nathaniel Harris and Tyree Harris, 300 acres in Orange County, N.C. This land eventually was bought by Richard Bennehan. |
| Oversize Paper OP-133/60 |