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Size | 2 items |
Abstract | The collection is the manuscript diary, 1860-1866 (bulk 1861-1862), of Margaret Ann ("Meta") Morris Grimball, a white woman who was married to John Berkley Grimball (1800-1892), the white owner of a rice plantation that used enslaved labor, in Saint Paul's Parish in the Colleton District of South Carolina. Grimball wrote about the management of enslaved people; plantation life; the progress of the American Civil War and its effects on the lives of those close to Mrs. Grimball, including the activities of her sons in the Confederate army and navy, and civilian relief efforts; sickness among the civilian and military population; the family's flight in May 1862 from anticipated Union attacks on the South Carolina coast to the relative safety of Spartanburg, where they rented quarters at St. John's College; her husband's conversion from Presbyterianism to Episcopalianism; her daughters' teaching careers; and other family and community matters. Grimball wrote from the Grove Plantation (Colleton District, S.C.), primary Grimball residence until after the war; from Charleston, where the family spent the summer months; and from Spartanburg, S.C. The Grimballs were connected to the Manigault and Lowndes families of South Carolina and to the Morris family of Morrisania, N.Y. |
Creator | Grimball, Margaret Ann Meta Morris, 1810-1881. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, July 1990
Encoded by: Eben Lehman, May 2006
Conscious Editing Work by: Nancy Kaiser, July 2020. Updated abstract, subject headings, 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.
Updated January 2021
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.
Margaret Ann Meta Morris Grimball, 1810-1881, was a descendant of Lewis Morris, general in the Continental Army, member of the Continental Congress, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Meta's father, also called Lewis Morris, married Elizabeth Manigault of South Carolina in 1807. Elizabeth was killed in a storm on Sullivan's Island, S.C., on 22 September 1822. In 1834, Lewis Morris married Aramintha Lowndes, who died in 1843. Through Meta's family, the Grimballs were, therefore, connected to the prominent Manigault and Lowndes families of South Carolina and to the Morris family of New York.
In 1830, Meta married John Berkley Grimball, 1800-1892, of Charleston, S.C. Grimball was the son of John and Eliza Berkley Grimball and a descendant of Paul Grimball (d. 1696). Paul Grimball came to South Carolina from England in 1682 and was secretary and receiver general of the province. The Grimballs were rice planters in Saint Paul's Parish in the Colleton District of South Carolina, but also spent much of the year in Charleston. They had nine children: Elizabeth (1831-1914), who married William Munro (d. 1900) and lived in Unionville, S.C.; Berkley (1833-1899), who studied law; Lewis (1835-1901), a physician who married Clementina Legge; William (d. 1864); John (d. 1922), who attended the United States Naval Academy and married Katie Moore; Arthur (d. 1894); Gabriella (d. 1924); Charlotte; and Harry, who married Helen E. Trenholm, daughter of Edward L. Trenholm, in 1876.
Back to TopThe collection is the manuscript diary, 1860-1866 (bulk 1861-1862), of Margaret Ann ("Meta") Morris Grimball, a white woman who was married to John Berkley Grimball (1800-1892), the white owner of a rice plantation that used enslaved labor, in Saint Paul's Parish in the Colleton District of South Carolina. Grimball wrote about the management of enslaved people; plantation life; the progress of the American Civil War and its effects on the lives of those close to Mrs. Grimball, including the activities of her sons in the Confederate army and navy, and civilian relief efforts; sickness among the civilian and military population; the family's flight in May 1862 from anticipated Union attacks on the South Carolina coast to the relative safety of Spartanburg, where they rented quarters at St. John's College; her husband's conversion from Presbyterianism to Episcopalianism; her daughters' teaching careers; and other family and community matters. Grimball wrote from the Grove Plantation (Colleton District, S.C.), primary Grimball residence until after the war; from Charleston, where the family spent the summer months; and from Spartanburg, S.C. The Grimballs were connected to the Manigault and Lowndes families of South Carolina and to the Morris family of Morrisania, N.Y.
Back to TopDiary, 210 pp., of Margaret Ann Meta Morris Grimball, containing entries, 1860-1866. The greatest number of diary entries were written in 1861 and 1862, but there are scattered entries from 1863 through 1865. The last entry, dated February 1866, summarizes the events that had taken place since the penultimate entry, which is dated "near the end of September [1865]."
The summary below shows some of the topics Grimball discussed in her diary. It is by no means an inclusive list of subjects, but gives only a general idea of how the narrative proceeds.
1860 | A few entries for December only. |
1861 | Daily life on the plantation, including the duties of a mistress, children's activities, social events. Rumors of war. |
1861 | Building of a fort, using enslaved labor, at the mouth of the Edisto River. |
1861 | Five eldest sons going off to serve the Confederacy: John resigning from the Naval Academy and entering the Confederate navy; Lewis, a physician, signing up as an army surgeon; William, Berkley, and Arthur entering other branches of the service. |
1861 | Capture of Fort Sumter. |
1861 | Activities of relief societies and news of death of soldiers. |
1861 | Fever in Charleston and among the troops. |
1861 | Report of Northern fleet at Hilton Head and Bay Point, S.C., (October) and at Tybee on the Georgia coast. Fire in Charleston (19 December). |
1862 | Difficulties with enslaved people, including anxiety about their safety, which resulted in the removal of the enslaved people to Monck's Corner in the interior of the state. |
1862 | News of military engagements, deaths, illnesses. |
1862 | Move to Spartanburg to escape expected attacks on the South Carolina coast. In Spartanburg, the Grimballs and their entourage rented quarters at Saint John's College. They remained in Spartanburg until the end of the war. |
1862 | General hardships due to shortages of many items necessary to the health and well being of the family and enslaved people. |
1862 | Note on letter received from son John in which he described fighting in Arkansas (19 August). |
1862 | Reports of duels in Charleston (19 August and 16 September). |
1862 | Visit of daughter Elizabeth to an iron mill. |
1863 | Increasing hardships and their influence on activities of family members and friends. |
1863 | Confirmation of John Berkley Grimball, formerly a Presbyterian, in the Episcopal Church to which his family subscribed (30 August). |
1863 | Account of the death of Lewis Morris (30 September). |
1864 | General sadness and despair relating to progress and probable outcome of the war. |
1864 | Daughter Elizabeth going to Unionville, S.C., to teach school; daughters Gabriella and Charlotte teaching school in Spartanburg (January). |
1864 | Receipt of parcel from son John (in the Confederate navy), who had gone to Nassau and then to England, and distribution of the parcel's contents among family and friends (April). |
1864 | Account of the death of son William in the military hospital in Charleston (30 July). |
1865 | Reluctance to write in diary, since all of the news is bad (breaks off writing in September). |
1866 | Summary of the events that had taken place since September 1865, almost exclusively documenting the whereabouts and activities of members of Grimball's immediate family. |
Folder 1 |
Original diary |
Folder 2 |
Typed transcription |
Reel R-00975/1 |
Microfilm copy |
Microfilm (R-00975/1)
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