Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

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 Robert F. W. Allston Letter #973-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

All or part of this collection is also available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.

Acquisitions Information

Received (in the Thomas Legare Receipt Book, #974) from Duncan Cameron Waddell of Plantersville, South Carolina, in April 1945.

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: Shonra Newman, July 1990

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

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.

• Allston, Robert F. W. (Robert Francis Withers), 1801-1864.
• Croup.
• Epidemics--South Carolina--History--19th century.
• Episcopal Church--South Carolina--History--19th century.
• Glennis, Alexander.
• Stearns, Edward J. (Edward Josiah), 1810-1890.

• Robert Francis Withers Allston Papers, South Carolina Historical Collection and Robert Francis Withers Allston Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina

Robert Francis Withers Allston (1801-1864) was the son of Benjamin Allston and Charlotte Anne Allston, who were second cousins. The fifth of six children, Allston was born at Brookgreen Plantation in All Saints' Parish, South Carolina. He received his early education at Waldo's School in Georgetown. At the age of sixteen, he entered the United States Military Academy and graduated in June 1821. He was appointed lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery and assigned to duty with the Coast Survey. After taking part in the survey of the harbors of Plymouth and Provincetown, Massachusetts, and the entrance of Mobile Bay, he resigned his commission in February 1822, in order to assume the management of the plantation of his now widowed mother.

Allston continued his profession of civil engineer and was elected, in 1823, to the office of surveyor general of South Carolina. In 1828, after two terms as surveyor general, he was elected from the parish of Prince George, Winyah, to the lower house of the General Assembly. In the legislature, he acted with the States-Rights Party, which was then evolving the doctrine of nullification. In 1830, he was reelected as a candidate of that party, but was defeated in 1832 by a Unionist. In the next month, however, he ran successfully for the state senate. Allston was regularly returned to this body until his election as governor in 1856, and, from 1847 to 1856, he was its presiding officer. He continued in his support of states rights principles, but was inclined to favor cooperation on the part of the slaveholding states in preference to separate state action. During the nullification controversy, he was made colonel of the militia and, subsequently, deputy adjutant-general. In 1842, he was nominated, against his wishes, to oppose J. H. Hammond in the election for governor. In 1850, he was a delegate to the Nashville Convention. His term as governor, 1856-1858, occurred in one of the rare intervals of comparative quiet in the political history of ante-bellum South Carolina. He worked toward the development of railroads, improvement of agricultural methods, and correction of the inefficient public-school system.

In 1832, Allston married Adele Petigru, sister of James Louis Petigru. He became one of the foremost planters and slave-owners in the state and was one of the last rice barons of the low country. In the reclaiming of swamp land, in the ditching and diking of rice-fields, his knowledge of engineering served him well. The results of some of his experiments were set forth in two treatises, A Memoir of the Introduction and Planting of Rice in South Carolina (1843), and "An Essay on Sea Coast Crops" (1854). At the time of his death, he was engaged in cultivating his lands in order to contribute foodstuffs to his Confederate countrymen.

(Excerpts adapted from the sketch of Robert Francis Withers Allston by J.H. Easterby in the Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 1, pp. 223-224).

One letter, dated 5 September 1843, and apparently written by the Reverend Alexander Glennis of Waccamaw, S.C., to Robert Francis Withers Allston of Society Hill, Darlington District, S.C. In the letter, Glennis described an epidemic of croup among children in his neighborhood and other sickness in the area; wrote of church business (presumably Episcopal), including an inquiry from the Reverend Edward J. Stearns of Richmond, Va.; and offered Allston spiritual counsel.