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.
Size | 38.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 15,000 items) |
Abstract | Stephen Beauregard Weeks (1865-1918) was a white North Carolina educator, historian, and superintendent of San Carlos Boarding School, what was then called an "Indian school," for Apache Indians in San Carlos, Arizona. The collection consists of personal, family, and professional correspondence, papers, diaries, and other volumes. Topics include the history of education in southern states, religion, a dispute at the San Carlos Boarding School, North Carolina history and biograpy, the formation of the Southern Historical Association, southern Quakers and slavery, and George Moses Horton, an African American poet who was enslaved in Chatham County, N.C., during the early 1800s. Also included are the diaries, 1793-1801, of Jeremiah Norman (b. 1771), describing his travels as an itinerant Methodist preacher in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.; typed transcript of a diary, 1746-1771, of Thomas Nicholson (1715-1780), a Quaker writer of Perquimans County, N.C.; minutes, 1815-1817, of the Camden, N.C., Methodist Circuit; a few Moravian items, 1891-1901, in German. |
Creator | Weeks, Stephen Beauregard, 1865-1918.
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Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: SHC Staff
Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007
Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, February 2010; Nancy Kaiser, July and October 2019; Nancy Kaiser and Gillian McCuistion, February 2020
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.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Stephen Beauregard Weeks (1865-1918) was a white North Carolina educator, historian, and superintendent of San Carlos Boarding School, what was then called an "Indian school," for Apache Indians in San Carlos, Arizona.
Back to TopThe original deposit of the collection contains papers and volumes related primarily to southern education and religion, compiled or created by Stephen B. Weeks, a white North Carolina educator, historian, and superintendent of San Carlos Boarding School, what was then called an "Indian school," for Apache Indians in San Carlos, Arizona. Included are his correspondence about North Carolina historical matters, 1897-1913, and 75 items pertaining to a dispute at San Carlos Boarding School in Arizona, 1903-1905. Volumes consist of the diary, 1793-1801 (14 volumes), of Jeremiah Norman (b. 1771), describing his travels as an itinerant Methodist preacher in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.; typed transcript of a diary, 1746-1771, of Thomas Nicholson (1715-1780), a Quaker writer of Perquimans County, N.C.; minutes, 1815-1817, of the Camden, N.C., Methodist Circuit; and a manuscript copy of Weeks's "Southern Quakers and Slavery" (pub. 1896). Also included are a few Moravian items, 1891-1901, in German; and correspondence, pamphlets, clippings and others materials relating to the formation of the Southern Historical Association in the late 1890s.
The addition of 1982 consists chiefly of personal, family, and professional correspondence and other papers, 1820-1920, relating to the Weeks family and his research on southern education; his work as a superintendent in Arizona; the Biographical History of North Carolina; the U.S. Indian Service; the Southern History Association; George Moses Horton, an African American poet who was enslaved in Chatham County, N.C.; and the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina. Also included are journals, 1880-1900, an account book, a grade book, and receipts.
Back to TopIncludes correspondence and other documentation of Stephen B. Weeks' charges against Ms. Fitzpatrick, a teacher at the San Carlos Boarding School, to Capt. Luther S. Kelly, a U.S. Indian Agent of the San Carlos Agency; record of her resulting suspension; and Ms. Fitzpatrick's defense to the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs. She accused Weeks, as superintendent, of giving undue attention to Ms. Bingham, another teacher at the school, and of corporal punishment which sent student Henry Hizzer to the physician. Also included are several testimonies of teachers serving as character witnesses. Edgar A. Allen was the Special Agent in charge of the investigation.
Folder 1a |
Original finding aid |
Folder 1 |
1903-1904 |
Folder 2 |
1905 and undated |
Weeks's correspondence about historical and bibliographical matters, some collected items, and notes and printed circulars about his work.
Folder 3 |
1795-1799; 1890-1896 |
Folder 4 |
1897-1941 |
Folder 5 |
Undated and miscellaneous |
Correspondence, pamphlets, clippings, and other materials relating to the formation of the Southern History Association in the late 1890s. Also included is material relating to the Atlantic Collegiate Institute and the public library in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
Folder 6 |
Items relating to the Southern History Association, 1896-1908 and undated |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103650
Processing Note: Archivists minimally arranged this addition. Box level information is not complete. Examination of all boxes in the addition may be necessary to access all relevant materials.
Correspondence from 1899-1907 (Boxes 5-14, 17, 22-24, and 26) documents Stephen B. Weeks' temporary move to the southwestern United States, during which he first resided in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and later worked as superintendent of the San Carlos Boarding School for Apache Indians in Arizona. He returned to North Carolina in 1907. An invitation to the 1904 Congress of Indian Educators, newspaper clippings, and several letters indicate that the school sought "Americanization" and "advancement" of Indigenous peoples, an educational approach that in 2020 is viewed as paternalistic and as an act of cultural colonialism (see Boxes 17 and 22). The Bureau of Indian Affairs, established in 1824, is an agency of the Department of the Interior, and at the time was the organizing force behind boarding schools for Indigenous peoples across the nation. This approach to assimilation through education included both on- and off-reservation schools, spanning from the 1870s to the 1930s. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1879-1918) was the first off-reservation boarding school for Indigenous people in the United States. It served as a model for what were known contemporaneously as "Indian Residential Schools," setting precedent for policies and practices later used in other schools. Physical and emotional abuse of the students was common, and severe punishments, including beatings, confinement, and hard labor, were administered to students who practiced and adhered to their Indigenous customs and beliefs. Agents sometimes forcibly removed children as young as 5 years old from their families to promote their vision for acculturation. The San Carlos Boarding School, of which Stephen B. Weeks was superintendent, opened in 1900 on the San Carlos Reservation.
Of particular note are scattered references to tag bands, such as TE 18, SB 55, and CJ 18, which refer to the coding system used in the identification of students and their families (see Box 17). The coding system was used in the forced transition from Apache to English names. Often, tags were arbitrarily assigned without respect for the established Apache tradition, regarding neither naming practices nor tribal organizational structures. First, the government imposed a division among the Apache population into bands and from there each band was given a corresponding letter (tag). Married men were given numbers first, followed by their wives with the same one. Chiefs were also chosen and classified by this system, numbered one to indicate their "modest administrative authority" (Cornell and Gil Swedberg, 1995). This tag band system ultimately facilitated the Bureau of Indian Affairs' deracination of Indigenous peoples, undermining Apache autonomy and decision-making. Also included are instances of students referred to by their English names, such as Sophie, Charley, and Lena Little.
Findings listed here may not be a comprehensive account. Researchers are encouraged to look through other boxes in the series for even more biographical information on early 20th century Apache students at the San Carlos Boarding School. Additionally, listed below are several links to related collections from the National Archives and Records Administration which provide avenues to supplementary research, as well as resources for more contextual information about the Bureau of Indian Affairs' boarding schools.
A listing of records from schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, nationwide.
American Indian records on microfilm, categorized by tribe.
An explanation of allotment records and their value in biographical research.
An initiative to collect dispersed records from Native American boarding schools.
The Power of American Indian Boarding School Records, a blog post of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Carlisle Indian School Records, a blog post of the Native Heritage Project which details what would become the model for all successive Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools.
An academic article with insight into the effects of the tag band system (pages 254-255): Cornell, S., & Gil-Swedberg, M. C. (1995). Sociohistorical Factors in Institutional Efficacy: Economic Development in Three American Indian Cases. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 43(2), 239–268. doi: 10.1086/452149.
Diary of Thomas Nicholson, a prominent Quaker writer of Perquimans County, North Carolina, relating his trip to Cape Fear in 1746, his stay in England from 1749-1751, and his visit to the North Carolina Assembly in 1771.
Folder 7 |
Volume 1: Diary of Thomas Nicholson, 1746-1771 (two typed copies)The two typescripts (one created by Stephen Weeks and one by Julian Winslow) are mostly identical. However, the Weeks typescript contains three pages at the beginning and three pages at the end that do not appear in the Winslow typescript, and pages 28-36 of the Winslow typescript contain material not included in the Weeks typescript. |
Volume from the Camden, North Carolina Circuit Methodist Church. Contains minutes of meetings and settlements with preachers, 1815-1817, and an account book for general merchandise, 1820.
Folder 8 |
Volume 2: Minutes and account book of the Camden, North Carolina Circuit Methodist Church, 1815-1820 |
Manuscript copy of Southern Quakers and Slavery, by Stephen B. Weeks. Includes typescript and manuscript notes.
Jeremiah Norman was a Methodist preacher of North Carolina who served as an itinerant preacher during much of the period covered by this diary. Norman was a local preacher in eastern North Carolina for a part of the period, during which time he also taught singing school and, at times, elementary school. His circuits were in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina. He referred to places by the Methodist names for the circuits and meeting houses, and it is often difficult to ascertain a precise place for specific entries. He was also imprecise in his dating, frequently noting only the day of the week, and sometimes it is impossible to establish an entry's complete date.
Norman made entries almost daily about his travels and the people with whom he stayed, with references to his preaching, the people he met, traveling conditions, his health, and social and religious conditions in general. References to the viewpoints and practices of the Methodists are found throughout the diary. In the later volumes, he made frequent references to rivalry between Methodists and Baptists.
Folder 17 |
Volume 5: June 1793-October 1795 |
Folder 18 |
Volume 6: October 1795-March 1796 |
Folder 19 |
Volume 7: March or April-July 1796 |
Folder 20 |
Volume 8: August-November 1796 |
Folder 21 |
Volume 9: November 1796-February 1797 |
Folder 22 |
Volume 10: February-June 1797 |
Folder 23 |
Volume 11: June-November 1797 |
Folder 24 |
Volume 12: November 1797-January 1798 |
Folder 25 |
Volume 13: January-May 1798 |
Folder 26 |
Volume 14: June-October 1798 |
Folder 27 |
Volume 15: February-May 1799 |
Folder 28 |
Volume 16: June-December 1799 |
Folder 29 |
Volume 17: January-July 1800 |
Folder 30 |
Volume 18: August 1800-February 1801 |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103650
Box 15 |
Journals, 1880-1900 |
Box 17 |
Grade book, 1891 |
Account book, 1910 |
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Box 29 |
Southern Historical Association, 1896Correspondence, programs, newspaper clippings. |
Reel M-762/1 |
Microfilm |