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 Asa Biggs Papers #1231-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from the North Carolina Historical Society; from Francis Marion Manning of Williamston, N.C., in June 1966; and from Edwin R. MacKethan of Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., in September 2003 (Acc. 99655).

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: December 2003

Encoded: December 2003

Updated: April 2019

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.

• Biggs family.
• Biggs, Asa, 1811-1878.
• Diaries.
• Hassell, Cushing Biggs, 1808-1880.
• Judges--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Lawyers--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Legislators--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• North Carolina--Biography.
• North Carolina--Description and travel.
• Ocracoke Island (N.C.)--Description and travel.
• Travelers--North Carolina--Diaries.

• Cushing Biggs Hassell Papers (#810)
• Biggs, Asa, collector. Martin County (N.C.) papers (#1971)

Asa Biggs was born in Williamston, N.C., on 4 February 1811, and died in Norfolk, Va., on 6 March 1878. He attended the Williamston Academy, studied law, and passed the bar in 1831. Biggs served in the North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1835; the North Carolina House of Commons in 1840 and 1842; the state Senate in 1844 and 1854; the United States House of Representatives, 1845-1847; and the United States Senate, 1855-1858. Biggs also served as United States District Judge for North Carolina, 1858-1861; in the North Carolina Secession Convention; and as a Confederate States judge, 1861-1865. Biggs practiced law in Tarboro, N.C., until 1869, when he moved to Norfolk, Va.

Asa Biggs was the son of Joseph Biggs (1766-1844) and Chloe Daniel (1776-1845). He married Martha Elizabeth Andrews (1814-1885) in 1832, and they had ten children.

The collection of white lawyer, judge, legislator, and United States Senator from North Carolina, Asa Biggs (1811-1878), contains an 1857 biographical sketch of Biggs, possibly written by Cushing B. Hassell; photocopy of a travel diary (7 p.) kept by Biggs on a trip from Williamston N.C., to Ocracoke, N.C., in 1832; and family history and biographical materials, including "Some Bible and Cemetery Records of the Asa Biggs Family," compiled by Edwin R. MacKethan III in July 2003.