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 | 1.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 300 items) |
Abstract | The collection of white planter of North Carolina, Nicholas Bryar Massenburg (1806-1867), contains antebellum records chiefly related to operations of his two Franklin County, N.C., plantations, Woodleaf and Egypt, and the enslaved people and their forced labor on these plantations. Family papers in the collection include letters received by Massenburg's daughter, Lucy C. Massenburg from her sister and mother and other relatives and friends. Other items are a journal with brief daily entries about cutting and hauling lumber between 1903 and 1908 and a scrapbook, chiefly containing clippings on agriculture and other topics. |
Creator | Massenburg, Nicholas Bryar, -1867. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Rebecca McCoy, June 1984; Connie Cartledge, May 1986; Roslyn Holdzkom, June 1992
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, December 2009
Updated with additions: April 2019
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.
Nicholas Bryar Massenburg (1806-1867), planter of Franklin County, N.C., who owned Woodleaf and Egypt plantations. Massenburg married Lucy Henry Davis in December 1831 and they had nine children who lived to maturity, among them, Lucy Cargill Massenburg.
Back to TopThe collection contains antebellum records chiefly related to operations of Nicholas Bryar Massenburg's two Franklin County, N.C., plantations, Woodleaf and Egypt, and the enslaved people and their forced labor on these plantations. Family papers in the collection include letters received by Massenburg's daughter, Lucy C. Massenburg from her sister and mother and other relatives and friends. Other items are a journal with brief daily entries about cutting and hauling lumber between 1903 and 1908 and a scrapbook, chiefly containing clippings on agriculture and other topics.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
There are only four items dated earlier than 1866; these are family letters written 1823, 1854, 1861, and 1863. The letter of 12 January 1863 was written by Archibald Cargill Massenburg to his sister Mollie, while he was stationed at Richmond, Va. In it, he told of having been ordered to Hanover Junction and other places, his material needs, the high prices in Richmond, and getting supplies for his regiment.
The 30 items dated 1866-1884 are family and personal letters mainly to Lucy C. Massenburg, Louisburg, N.C. Others are addressed to her mother Mrs. Lucy Massenburg, who seems to have been spending part of the time with daughter Lucy and other times with daughter Mariam S. Massenburg Norwood. There are also a few letters addressed to other members of the family.
Most letters are concerned with routine family matters: illnesses; visits; news of neighbors; marriages; births; farm work, crops, and weather; church attendance and visiting preachers; and other such events. The letters were written by Mariam S. Massenburg Norwood and the Norwood children in Warrenton, N.C.; Mrs. Lucy Massenburg; Miss Lucy's brother, W. P. Massenburg at Macon Depot; and her cousins, Nannie and Lucy, and other cousins and friends at Enfield and several other places in North Carolina. The letters mention many relatives by their first names only, making their identity unclear. The first letter to Miss Lucy C. Massenburg is dated 1866; the latest letter addressed to Mrs. Lucy Massenburg is dated 1881. The 1895 letter is form a niece Lucy to "dear precious Aunt."
Folder 1 |
1823, 1854, 1861, 1863, 1866-1867 |
Folder 2 |
1868-1870 |
Folder 3 |
1871-1875 |
Folder 4 |
1877-1879, 1870s |
Folder 5 |
1880-1884, 1895, and undated |
Folder 6 |
Other materialOther material includes A. C. Massenburg's religious composition for Professor Stuart, an invitation for a tournament and coronation party, and a fragment from a diary. |
Box 3 |
Papers, circa 1870s-1890sAcquisitions Information: Accession 100981 (Addition of July 2008) Includes correspondence and receipts. |
Box 3 |
Papers of Lucy Massenburg, circa 1857-1895Acquisitions Information: Accession 102515 (Addition of February 2016) The papers pertain chiefly to Lucy Massenburg's farming operations and include receipts for cotton ginned and tobacco sold in Louisburg. Also includes a few letters, receipts for purchases, and two lists of household property. |
The volumes include detailed daily records of family and agricultural activities, slave lists, plantation accounts, and miscellaneous notes. Typed copies of the first two volumes are available. The third volume is available on microfilm. Volume 4 is a journal, owner unknown, with entries, 1903-1908, mostly having to do with cutting and hauling lumber. Volume 5 is a scrapbook containing a few accounts and many clippings, 1870s-1890s, on agriculture and other topics.
Folder 7 |
Volume 1. 1834-1839 |
Transcription Volume TV-908/1 |
Transcription Volume 1. 1834-1839 |
Folder 8 |
Volume 2. 1840-1846 |
Transcription Volume TV-908/2 |
Transcription Volume 2. 1840-1843 |
Folder 9 |
Volume 3. 1847-1851 |
Transcription Volume TV-908/3 |
Transcription Volume 3. 1843-1846 |
Folder 10 |
Volume 4 and enclosures, 1903-1908 |
Folder 11 |
Folder number not used |
Oversize Volume SV-908/5 |
Volume 5: Scrapbook, 1870s-1890s |
Folder 12 |
Volume S-5 enclosures |