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Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Howell Cobb Papers #161, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Rebecca Stubbs and Davia Webb, June 2023

Encoded by: Laura Smith, June 2023

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Cherry Hill (Jefferson County, Ga.: Plantation)
• Cherry Hill Plantation (Ga.)
• Cobb, Howell, 1772-1818.
• Cobb, Howell, 1815-1868.
• Rumsey, David, 1810-1883.
• Slavery--United States--History--19th century--Sources.
• United States. Congress. House -- History -- 19th century.
• Wills--Georgia.
• Wills.

Howell Cobb (1772-1818) was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Georgia, and a veteran of the War of 1812. His nephew, Howell Cobb (1815-1868) was also a member of the United States House of Representatives, the speaker of the House from 1849 to 1851. He also served as the 40th governor of Georgia (1851–1853) and as a secretary of the treasury under President James Buchanan (1857–1860). He is know as one of the founders of the Confederacy, having served as the President of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States where delegates of the Southern slave states declared that they had seceded from the United States and created the Confederate States of America.

The collection contains a typed transcription of the will of Howell Cobb (1772-1818), of Cherry Hill Plantation in Jefferson County, Ga. Cobb emancipates William Hill from enslavement and leaves $50 per year to another enslaved man, Fellow Ben. At the discretion of his brother, John A. Cobb, Howell Cobb leaves much of his estate to his nephew, also named Howell Cobb (1815-1868).

There is also a $50 check, dated 11 January 1851 and signed by Speaker of the House Howell Cobb, written to U.S. House of Representatives member David Rumsey, Jr., a representative from New York.