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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.
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.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 12 items |
| Abstract | The Philip Henry Pitts Papers document the white plantation owner and enslaver in Union Town (now Uniontown), Perry County, Alabama, who mostly dealt in cotton. The collection includes handwritten manuscript volumes, typed transcriptions of these volumes, letters written to and from members of the Pitts family, and miscellaneous papers. The manuscript volumes are in the form of account books and diaries and contain entries made by Pitts about the people he enslaved; his financial dealings in the cotton trade and with both the Alabama and Mississippi Railroad and Selma and Meridian Railroad; and records of loans and debts, household expenditures for both Rurill Hill and Kings Plantations, and expenses, including medical care, for his family and sometimes the people enslaved by him. Other information about enslaved people includes records of births and deaths and of trafficking of their labor, skills, and knowledge through sale and hiring out in the vicinity. There are also reports of self-emancipation through running away and of the murder of an enslaver, allegedly by enslaved people. Pitt also discussed freed people, especially their enfranchisement and employment after the American Civil War. Other topics include planting, livestock, the weather, folk medicine, anti-Semitic sentiments, Radical Republicans (those who believed that newly freed people deserved the same rights and opportunities as white people), politics, business, crimes, and social news in Perry County. The Caldwell and Davidson families are frequently mentioned and there are anecdotes about Alexander Caldwell Davidson, Wiliam Rufus King, and Zebulon Baird Vance. The diaries also record the involvement of family members in the 4th Regiment, Alabama Volunteers during the American Civil War. The letters relate to family matters and business councerns of Pitts and of his father, Thomas D. Pitts, including the latter's involvement as an officer in the War of 1812. A song lyric about the Nullification Crisis of 1832 is included. |
| Creator | Pitts, Philip Henry, 1814-1884. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
Processed by: Elizabeth Pauk, May 1991
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Concious Editing by Nancy Kaiser, September 2022 (updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, collection overview, contents list); Saija Wilson, May 2024 (updated abstract, biographical note, collection overview, contents list).
In 2024, archivists reviewed this collection to uncover more information about the lives of people of color before and immediately after the American Civil War. Containers that include materials related to enslaved and free people of color during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement and/or free people of color" or "Records of Reconstruction." Researchers are advised that the collection may include more documentation of enslaved people, free people of color, and freed people than has been identified in this finding aid.
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.
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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
Philip Henry Pitts, a white cotton plantation owner in Alabama, was born 3 June 1814, probably in Essex County, Va. He was the son of Thomas Daniel Pitts (d. 26 August 1851) and Polly Pitts (d. 4 March 1839). Thomas Daniel Pitts was a captain in the 4th Regiment, Virginia Militia, in Westmoreland County, during the War of 1812. In 1833, the Pitts family moved from Lloyds, Essex County, Va., to Oak Lawn, near Union Town (now Uniontown), Perry County, Ala. Thomas and his sons, Arthur B. L. Pitts (d. 25 July 1853), David William ("William") Pitts (d. 22 July 1861), and Philip Henry Pitts, were landowners, cotton growers, and enslavers in the Cane Brake or Black Belt Region of west central Alabama. Some of the extended Pitts family remained in Virginia, while others moved to Mecklenburg County, N.C.
Philip H. Pitts married Margaret Pitts (b. 25 May 1824) probably before their first child was born in 1841. They had ten children, most of whom survived into adulthood, having six sons and four daughters named Mary Grey Pitts Walker (b. 27 February 1841), John Pitts (26 June 1843-27 June 1862), Sarah E. ("Kitty") Pitts Hudson, Thomas Daniel Pitts, Philip Henry ("Henry" or "Harry") Pitts Jr., Arthur D. Pitts, Pattie Pitts (b. 2 March 1858), Ellic Pitts, David W. Pitts, and Adelene Pitts (b. 1 January 1862).
At the time of the 1860 census, Philip Henry Pitts claimed 89 enslaved people as property and owned 2200 acres of land, as well as stock in the Alabama-Mississippi Railroad, for a total worth of $175,300. His estates were called "Rurill Hill" (probably named after John Davidson's "Rural Hill" plantation in Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) and "Kings." Philip Henry Pitts may have owned land in other areas of Alabama, perhaps including Choctaw County. At the end of the Civil War, Philip Henry Pitts retained at least part of his holdings at Rurill Hill, but Kings seems to have disappeared. In 1870, he bought a section of the Lodebo plantation adjoining Rurill Hill. He remained a cotton grower until his death on 22 April 1884.
The Pitts family was related to several other socially and politically influential Uniontown families frequently mentioned in Philip Henry Pitts's diaries, including the Davidson family (also with members in North Carolina), most notably Alexander Caldwell Davidson, Democratic representative from Alabama to the 49th and 50th U.S. Congress. Other frequently mentioned families were the Caldwell family of North Carolina and the Rennolds or Reynolds family of Virginia. There was a great amount of travel by Pitts relations between North Carolina and Alabama during the years covered by the diaries.
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Scope and Content
This collection documents Philip Henry Pitts, a white plantation owner and enslaver in Union Town (now Uniontown), Perry County, Alabama, who mostly dealt in cotton. Included are handwritten manuscript volumes, typed transcriptions of these volumes, letters written to and from members of the Pitts family, and miscellaneous papers. The manuscript volumes are in the form of account books and diaries and contain entries made by Pitts about the people he enslaved; his financial dealings in the cotton trade and with both the Alabama and Mississippi Railroad and Selma and Meridian Railroad; and records of loans and debts, household expenditures for both Rurill Hill and Kings Plantations, and expenses, including medical care, for his family and sometimes the people enslaved by him. Other information about enslaved people includes records of births and deaths and of trafficking of their labor, skills, and knowledge through sale and hiring out in the vicinity. There are also reports of self-emancipation through running away and of the murder of an enslaver, allegedly by enslaved people. Pitt also discussed freed people, especially their enfranchisement and employment after the American Civil War. Other topics include planting, livestock, the weather, folk medicine, anti-Semitic sentiments, Radical Republicans (those who believed that newly freed people deserved the same rights and opportunities as white people), politics, business, crimes, and social news in Perry County. The Caldwell and Davidson families are frequently mentioned and there are anecdotes about Alexander Caldwell Davidson, Wiliam Rufus King, and Zebulon Baird Vance. The diaries also record the involvement of family members in the 4th Regiment, Alabama Volunteers during the American Civil War. The letters relate to family matters and business councerns of Pitts and of his father, Thomas D. Pitts, including the latter's involvement as an officer in the War of 1812. A song lyric about the Nullification Crisis of 1832 is included.
Typed transcriptions accompany the volumes and one of the letters. They contain some typographical errors and omissions of text, although none of major proportions.
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Philip Henry Pitts Papers, 1814-1839.
Arrangement: chronological.
| Folder 1 |
Correspondence and other loose items, 1814-1838 and undated
|
| Folder 2 |
Volume 1: September 1850-February 1853103 pages. Typed transcription of Volume 1 is available in Folder 3. These transcripts may contain some typographical errors and omissions of text. Newspaper clippings that were pasted into manuscript volume 1 have not been transcribed. Volume 1 is composed of Philip Henry Pitts's journals, accounts and diaries containing a number of pasted-in newspaper clippings and handwritten entries relating to enslaved people, farming, household management, cooking and medicinal matters. Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:
Also of note is an account of an Indigenous doctor providing treatment (p. 90). Other entries include: notes on the weather, planting and harvesting, livestock including horses, mules, sheep, pigs, and cattle; church news and critiques of various visiting preachers, including his purchasing the works of Andrew Fuller from Mr. Rives who was a missionary to Black people (p. 73); dealings with the Alabama-Mississippi Railroad and the Selma-Meridian Railroad; financial records including that of his loans, debts, cotton sales, life insurance, and taxes; property records including the construction of his home and of a brick kiln (p. 93); a list of his father's acquaintances and friends who had died (p. 57); local politics and Pitts's encounter with U.S. Vice President and senator from Alabama William Rufus de Vane King (1786-1853) regarding the latter's illness and cure (p. 89); and family matters including the death of Pitts's father Thomas D. Pitts (p. 50) and brother Arthur B. L. Pitts (p. 53) and news of the Davidson and Caldwell branches of the family. |
| Folder 3 |
Typed transcription of Volume 1Typed transcription of Volume 1, handwritten version located in Folder 2. These transcripts may contain some typographical errors and omissions of text. Newspaper clippings that were pasted into manuscript volume 1 have not been transcribed. |
| Folder 4 |
Volume 2: Accounts, January 1856-1865, July 1884; Diary and Accounts, August 1882-March 1884Typed transcription of Volume 2 is available in Folder 5. These transcripts may contain some typographical errors and omissions of text. The accounting entries found on pages 1-105 and pages 295-300, spanning the period of January 1856-1867, and those found on pages 189-270, some without full date and others dated July 1884, have not been transcribed. Volume 2 is composed of Philip Henry Pitts's journals, accounts and diaries containing: handwritten records of Pitts's accounts, spanning the years of 1856-1867, relating to transactions involving enslaved people, farming, household management and medicinal matters; followed by diary entries, spanning the years of 1882-1884, relating to people of color, some of whom formerly may have been enslaved; farming; household management; cooking; and medicinal matters. Accounting entries for 1856-1867 can be found on pages 1-105 and pages 295-300. Diaries, journals, and accounts for 1882-1884 can be found on pages 106-186, which cover the last two years of Pitts's life, and seem to have been written in the back of an older account book originally used from 1856 to 1867. There is an alphabetical name index for the accounts in the front pages of the volume. Some entries are crossed out and some others have been written over by Pitts; this may make them difficult to read. Records of enslavement and/or free people of color and/or Records of Reconstruction for 1856-1867 and 1882-1884:
Other entries for the period 1856-1865 concern Pitts's debts and loans, purchases of lumber and building supplies, cotton sales, bale weights, and shipments to Mobile, Ala. via railroad, doctor's bills from his family, and the purchase of ten marriage licenses from a judge (p. 100). For the period 1882-1884, entries are about Pitt's family matters (including mention of the Davidson family, Alexander Caldwell Davidson in particular), livestock, garden, crops (including the failed cotton crop and ensuing financial panic of 1883), weather accounts, local news and politics (including mentions of the nascent Republican (Radical) Party), local crimes and court cases (his sons Henry and Ellic were apparently part-time lawyers on the Circuit Court), opinions about church business, information about the railroads, and medicinal cures (all though not as prevalent as in previous volumes). Also notable in this volume is expression of anti-Semitic sentiments, discussion of the Alabama congressional elections and corruption in Alabama politics, and a brief history of the Alabama railroads. There is an anecdote from Dr. Davidson about the cure from impotence of Governor Zebulon B. Vance (1830-1894) of North Carolina. Pages 189-270 contain a scattering of the accounts of Arthur D. Pitts, dated July 1884. |
| Folder 5 |
Typed transcription of selected entries from Volume 288 pages. Typed transcription of Volume 2, handwritten version located in Folder 4. These transcripts may contain some typographical errors and omissions of text. The accounting entries found on pages 1-105 and pages 295-300, spanning the period of January 1856-1867, and those found on pages 189-270, some without full date and others dated July 1884, have not been transcribed. |
| Folder 6 |
Volume 3: January 1860-January 1863121 pages. Undated loose pages from Volume 3 can be found in folder 1. Typed transcription of Volume 3 is available in Folder 7. These transcripts may contain some typographical errors and omissions of text. Volume 3 is composed of Philip Henry Pitts's journals, accounts and diaries containing handwritten records of Pitts's accounts, spanning the years 1860-1862, relating to transactions involving enslaved people, railroads, farming, livestock, household management, local news, and medicinal matters. Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:
Other entries relate to: accounts for the railroad and cotton; railroad business and elections; the financial panic of 1861; agriculture, livestock, planting advice, and the weather; legal concerns; local county births, deaths, and marriages; home remedies and the symptoms of different illnesses of both humans and livestock; and local crimes and court trials, as well as his own legal disputes with different individuals. In 1860, Pitts took part in the Census, giving his total worth as $175,300. Also, in 1860, the presidential election and news of the impending American Civil War were mentioned. Pitts primarily attended the local Presbyterian church, although he was interested in preaching and the comparative church activities of the local Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Baptist churches. News of the war increased as Pitts's brother David "William" Pitts and son John Pitts both enlisted in the Cane Brake Rifle Guards of the 4th Regiment Alabama Volunteers, leaving Uniontown 25 April 1861 for Harper's Ferry, Va. Pitts recorded the death of William in the First Battle of Manassas, 22 July 1861 and John on the third day of the Seven Days Battles at Gaines Mill, near Richmond, Va., on 27 June 1862, one day after his 19th birthday. Pitts wrote extensively about their burials and the settling of his brother's estate. |
| Folder 7 |
Typed transcription of Volume 391 pages. Typed Transcription of Volume 3, handwritten version located in Folder 6. These transcripts may contain some typographical errors and omissions of text. |
| Folder 8 |
Volume 4: 1 January 1870-28 December 1870; 1 May 1874372 pages. Typed transcription of Volume 4 is available in Folder 9. These transcripts may contain some typographical errors and omissions of text. Volume 4 is composed of Philip Henry Pitts's journals, accounts, and diaries containing handwritten records of Pitts's accounts for 1870, apart from one 1874 entry at the end, with entries for almost every day, relating to transactions involving enslaved people, railroads, farming, livestock, household management, local news and court cases, medicinal matters, and agricultural and weather notes. At this time, Pitts retained his Rurill Hill plantation, although he had apparently lost his Kings estate after the American Civil War. Records of Reconstruction:
References to a group of unnamed Romani people camping nearby (p. 139). Frequent themes are tense working relationships with newly freed people, local politics of the Radical Republican Party, and the enfranchisement of people of color. Pitts also wrote about his purchase of a section of the Lodebo plantation adjoining Rurill Hill. Other items of note are folk tales about medicinal cures and the weather; railroad elections and business; and an increasing theme of expressing anti-Semitic sentiments, which is even more strongly present later. (See Volume 2, 1882-1884). |
| Folder 9 |
Typed transcription of Volume 460 pages. Typed Transcription of Volume 4, handwritten version located in Folder 8. These transcripts may contain some typographical errors and omissions of text. |