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.
This collection was processed with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
Size | 1.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1000 items) |
Abstract | The William Shanks family and the William A. Moody family were related. Both were chiefly tobacco planters of Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va. The Royster family of Granville County was related to the Shanks and Moody families. The collection is chiefly business papers, with scattered family correspondence and miscellaneous items. Business papers pertain to the administration of estates and to plantation finances, and most involve William Shanks between the 1830s and the 1870s. Earlier financial materials include papers of William Shanks's father, Robert Shanks, mostly between 1801 and the 1820s, and of Williams Shanks's brother-in-law, William A. Moody, in the 1830s and 1840s. Later business papers are for William Shanks's son, Henry T. Shanks. Estate papers appear for Benjamin Moody, Francis Royster, Robert Shanks, Elizabeth Shanks, and others. The financial items consist of bills, receipts, accounts, slave bills of sale, slave lists, deeds, legal agreements, correspondence concerning personal finances and the sale of tobacco, and summonses. Family letters touch on social, religious, plantation, and school life; slavery; politics in Macon County, N.C., Fayette County, Tenn., Drew County, Ark., and several locations in Virginia; and overseers' duties in Clarke and Hinds counties, Miss. There are a few Civil War letters relating to life in the Confederate army. Also included are poems, a hymn, and a pamphlet. |
Creator | Shanks (Family : Granville County, N.C.) |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Jill Snider, August 1992
Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, January 2007
This collection was processed with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
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.
William Shanks (1801-1888?) was a tobacco planter in Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va. The son of Robert (1775-1845?) and Elizabeth Royster Shanks (d. 1864?), he had several siblings, including Robert Jr. (b. 1811), James (b. 1814), Susanna (b. 1805), and Mary Shanks (b. 1817).
William Shanks married Ann Moody, the daughter of Benjamin and Dolly Moody of Granville County. William and Ann had several children, among them Henry T. Shanks (fl. 1869-1923).
Ann Moody Shanks had several siblings, including William A. Moody (fl. 1831-1849), Mary E. (possibly called Elizabeth), Almirah (possibly Susan Almirah, often called Elmyrah or Elly), James (d. 1833?), and Francis A. Moody (fl. 1831-1838). All the younger siblings became the wards of John H. Ragsdale and of their brother, William A. Moody, upon the death of their father, Benjamin Moody, about 1831.
William A. Moody was a tobacco planter in both Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va. As guardian for his younger siblings, he shared responsibility for raising them with his mother, Dolly, who remarried after her husband's death to Pomfreitt Lloyd of Granville County.
Mary E. Moody (fl. 1831-1851) may have married William D. Trotter; although she continued to use her maiden name in her letters, their content suggests that she was married to and had children with Trotter. She moved with him first to Macon County, N.C., and later to Fayette County, Tenn., and Drew County, Ark.
Other relatives of the Shanks and Moody families include Elizabeth Royster Shanks's father, James Royster (d. 1837?), and her brother, Banister Royster (fl. 1831-1837). Relatives whose connections are unclear are Francis Royster (d. 1831), his daughter, Emily Royster (fl. 1831-1837), and John Royster (d. 1838?), who were probably relations of Elizabeth, and Peter W. Brame and Mary Brame. Peter worked as an overseer in Clarke County, Miss., in 1860-1861, and served in the Confederate army in 1862.
Back to TopThe collection is chiefly business papers, with scattered family correspondence and miscellaneous items related to the Shanks family, tobacco planters of Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va. There are also papers of the related Moody family, also of Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va., and of the Royster family of Granville County. Business papers pertain to the administration of estates and to plantation finances, and most involve William Shanks between the 1830s and the 1870s. Earlier financial materials include papers of William Shanks's father, Robert Shanks, mostly between 1801 and the 1820s, and of Williams Shanks's brother-in-law, William A. Moody, in the 1830s and 1840s. Later business papers are for William Shanks's son, Henry T. Shanks. Estate papers appear for Benjamin Moody, Francis Royster, Robert Shanks, Elizabeth Shanks, and others. The financial items consist of bills, receipts, accounts, slave bills of sale, slave lists, deeds, legal agreements, correspondence concerning personal finances and the sale of tobacco, and summonses. Family letters touch on social, religious, plantation, and school life; slavery; and politics in Macon County, N.C., Fayette County, Tenn., Drew County, Ark., and several locations in Virginia; and overseers' duties in Clarke County, Miss., and Hinds County, Miss. There are a few Civil War letters relating to life in the Confederate army. Also included are poems, a hymn, and a pamphlet.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Scattered letters to Ann Moody (Mrs. William) Shanks and Margaret (Mrs. William A.) Moody from Mary E. Moody and W. D. Trotter (probably Mary E, Moody's husband), from Macon County, N.C., Fayette County, Tenn., and Drew County, Ark., 1845-1851, and later letters from relatives in North Carolina and Virginia; letters to William Moody from his brother Francis in Rockingham, N.C., and cousins in Virginia and North Carolina, mostly in the 1840s; letters to William Shanks from relatives in North Carolina in the 1830s and 1840s; letters to Miss Mary Brame (location unknown) from her brother Peter W. Brame, while he worked as an overseer on a cotton plantation in Clarke County, Miss., 1860-1861; and miscellaneous letters exchanged by other Shanks and Moody family members whose identities are unclear. One item, dated 25 March 1849, is a letter from an unidentified overseer in Hinds County, Miss. Two Civil War letters appear: one, dated 24 June 1862, is from Peter W. Brame, while he was a soldier in Virginia, to Mary Brame, and the other, dated 23 July 1862, is from James Shanks at Camp Johnston to his father.
Antebellum letters chiefly discuss family, social, religious, and plantation life, slavery, and politics in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, and overseers' duties in Mississippi. Civil War letters discuss camp life and family matters. Postbellum letters, some addressed to a Mary Shanks, discuss family matters and school life.
Folder 1 |
1837-1847 |
Folder 2 |
1848-1861 |
Folder 3 |
1862-1891 and undated |
Arrangement: chronological.
Business papers, chiefly of William Shanks of Granville County, N.C., and Mecklenburg County, Va., between the 1830s and the 1870s, and of William A. Moody of the same area in the 1830s and 1840s. Papers also appear for Robert Shanks Sr., mostly between 1801 and the 1820s, and for Henry T. Shanks, 1872-1923. The bulk of the papers concern the settlement of the estates of Francis Royster and Benjamin Moody and the plantation business of Shanks and Moody. Estate papers also appear for James Royster, James Moody, John Royster, Robert Shanks, Sr., Elizabeth Shanks, and William Shanks. Items include bills, receipts, estate and plantation accounts, slave bills of sale, slave lists, correspondence with commission merchants in Richmond and Petersburg, correspondence with local creditors and debtors, banking papers, legal agreements, summonses, and deeds.
Of note are a list, 20 February 1820, of the names and birth dates of the children of Robert and Elizabeth Shanks, and an 1837 legal agreement on the division of slaves belonging to the estate of James Royster.
Folder 4 |
1801-1826 |
Folder 5 |
1827-1832 |
Folder 6 |
1833 |
Folder 7 |
1834 |
Folder 8-9
Folder 8Folder 9 |
1835 |
Folder 10-11
Folder 10Folder 11 |
1836 |
Folder 12-13
Folder 12Folder 13 |
1837 |
Folder 14 |
1838 |
Folder 15 |
1839 |
Folder 16 |
1840 |
Folder 17 |
1841 |
Folder 18 |
1842 |
Folder 19 |
1843-1844 |
Folder 20 |
1845 |
Folder 21 |
1846-1847 |
Folder 22 |
1848-1849 |
Folder 23 |
1850 |
Folder 24 |
1851-1852 |
Folder 25 |
1853-1854 |
Folder 26 |
1855-1856 |
Folder 27 |
1857-1859 |
Folder 28 |
1860-1861 |
Folder 29 |
1862-1865 |
Folder 30 |
1866-1868 |
Folder 31 |
1869-1872 |
Folder 32 |
1873-1877 |
Folder 33 |
1878-1885 |
Folder 34 |
1886-1923 |
Folder 35 |
Undated |
Arrangement: chronological.
Pamphlet entitled The Vindication of Thomas Paine by Robert G. Ingersoll (64 pages) published on 8 October 1877 by the Appeal To Reason of Girard, Kan.; an undated, untitled hymn (handwritten); an untitled poem by T. A. Clairborn, given to his student Miss E. T. Moody, bidding his scholar farewell; and an undated fragment of a poem.
Folder 36 |
Other items |