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This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
Size | 1 volume |
Abstract | Robert A. Jones (Active 1817-1829) was a white owner and manager of cotton plantations and an enslaver in Halifax, Bertie, and Wake Counties, N.C. His account book, 1817-1829, documents his personal, business, and plantation accounts, especially at Occaneeche, the Grove, Indian Woods, and New Hope plantations. Enslaved people and free people of color are documented throughout the account book as tradespeople receiving payments or gifts, and as people claimed as property in account records and inventories. Indigenous people are mentioned at least once as recipients of gifts. The volume also includes records of Jones's account management for his ward, Willie W. Jones, of Bertie County; for the estates of Mary Montfort Jones and James Johnston of Halifax; and for the Wardens of the Poor for Halifax County, for which Jones served as treasurer. |
Creator | Jones, Robert A., fl. 1817-1828. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Jill Snider, May 1992
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Conscious Editing Work by: Nancy Kaiser, July 2020, August 2023. Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, scope and content note, and container list.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
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Robert A. Jones (Active 1817-1829) was a white owner of a cotton plantation and an enslaver in Halifax County, N.C.; he also owned or managed enslaved people and landholdings in Bertie and Wake counties, N.C. Plantations he owned or managed include Grove, Occaneeche, New Hope, and Indian Woods, whose exact locations are unknown. He appears also to have operated a paper mill outside Raleigh, N.C., and a blacksmith shop in Halifax. Between 1817 and 1826, Jones served as guardian for Willie W. Jones, who was the son of Mary Montfort Jones and possibly his nephew. Robert A. Jones acted as estate administrator for Mary Montfort Jones after her death in 1825. In 1823, Jones was appointed estate administrator for James Johnston (d. 1821), former postmaster of Halifax County, who died intestate. Jones also served as treasurer of the Wardens of the Poor of Halifax County and was treasurer of the Roanoke Navigation Company.
Back to TopRobert A. Jones's account book, 1817-1829, documents his personal expenditures and business accounts for his cotton plantations and other landholdings he owned or managed in Halifax, Bertie, and Wake counties, including Occaneeche, the Grove, Indian Woods, and New Hope plantations, whose exact locations are unknown. His accounts are with commission and hardware merchants; overseers; tradespeople who were white, free people of color, and enslaved; and other plantation owners. The volume also includes records of Jones's account management for his ward, Willie W. Jones, of Bertie County, between 1817 and 1826; Mary Montfort Jones, whose estate he administered after her death in 1825; and for James Johnston of Halifax, whose estate he was appointed by a commission to administer in 1823 (pages 373-376 and 417-418). Jones also kept accounts as treasurer of the Wardens of the Poor for Halifax County between 1820 and 1823 (pages 189-197, 361-362, and 369-370).
Enslaved people and free people of color are mentioned throughout the account book. Nearly every page of Jones's personal expenditures includes instances of him making payments or gifts to enslaved people and free people of color who worked in fields at plantations and as artisans and tradespeople. Also of note are an undated inventory of people enslaved by Jones (pages 183-184) and accounts for wages paid, monies lent, and goods sold to laborers who were identified as being of mixed race (pages 329-334). Jones also recorded when he purchased an enslaved person (pages 100(?) and 132). Indigenous people are mentioned at least once as recipients of gifts (page 20).
Enslaved people and free people of color can also be found in business accounts Jones maintained for his ward, Willie W. Jones from 1817 to 1826 (pages 105-106, 207-209, 343-352, 389-396, and 401-412). These accounts record expenditures and arrangements for the hire of enslaved people in Bertie County. Included are several lists of enslaved people giving ages and number of children. Jones often made copious notes on his decisions about hiring out enslaved people, as well as on his other financial actions.
Entries Jones made in his account book as administrator for the estate of Mary Montfort Jones include lists of enslaved people who are identified by name, age, and family relationships (page 419, 427, and 429).
Accounts with artisans and tradespeople who were white, enslaved, and free people of color included veterinarians, blacksmiths, sawyers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, waggoners, auctioneers, surveyors, grocers and dry goods merchants, doctors, midwives, barbers, ditchers, weavers, shoemakers, and well diggers. Other accounts are with overseers, including Richard Carter at New Hope Plantation in 1822 and 1825 (pages 341 and 387-388); Solomon Griffin at Indian Woods Plantation in 1818 and 1824 (pages 129-130 and 385-386); Jonathan Skiles at an unknown location (pages 129-130); and Micajah Griffin, overseer in 1821 (pages 309-310). Jones also recorded monies spent for taxes and for the purchase of livestock, cotton seed, cotton for resale, and coal, which was used in his blacksmithing concern. Other business accounts are for deposits to the Newbern Bank and for stocks held in the Roanoke Navigation Company (page 165 and 397) and the Halifax Bridge Company (page 398). There is limited information about Jones's other business activities, which included operating a paper mill and blacksmith shop and acting as treasurer of the Roanoke Navigation Company.
Other personal accounts are for electioneering and travel expenses, literary and newspaper subscriptions, and monies lent, and individual charitable contributions. Of note are expenditures for many popular entertainments of the day, including gambling (cards, cockfighting, horse racing, and lotteries), the circus, subscriptions to balls and the Jockey Club, and admission to Punch and the Devil shows. Other personal expenditures he made were for subscriptions to the Bible Society and for the preaching of a Reverend Wright.
Other entries include property inventories for himself, Mary Montfort Jones, and James Johnston, and personal notes and observations. Scattered notes to himself in the volume concern bookkeeping techniques, his thoughts on his spending habits, the purposes of his personal charity (e.g., he gave $10 to E. Wade "to start him in the World,") and comments on the character of individuals with whom he dealt. Two enclosures are one receipt from Richard Carter, 27 January 1826, for timber sawed by "Prince's sawyers," who likely were enslaved people, and one undated page of miscellaneous calculations.
Back to TopFolder 1 |
Account Book |
Folder 2 |
Enclosures |