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 Edenton Methodist Episcopal Church record book #3075, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Lent for filming by Mary Leggett Browning of Edenton, N.C., in November 1954.

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: Suzanne Ruffing, August 1996

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Conscious editing by Nancy Kaiser, April 2024: Updated abstract, subject headings, collection overview, contents 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.

This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.

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.

• African American Methodists--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Church records and registers--North Carolina--Edenton--History--19th century.
• Edenton (N.C.)--Church history--19th century.
• Edenton Methodist Episcopal Church (N.C.)
• Enslaved persons--Religious life--North Carolina.
• Free African Americans--Religious life--North Carolina.
• Jones, Enoch, active 1808.
• Merchants--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Methodist Episcopal Church--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Methodists--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Overton, Bernard, active 1824-1825.
• Slavery--United States--History--19th century--Sources.

Volume with three parts: a merchandise ledger, 1804-1806; church records, 1815-1853 and 1863; and commonplace entries, undated. The bulk of the volume consists of the records of Edenton Methodist Episcopal Church, including minutes of quarterly, steward, and other meetings; records of membership, births, baptisms, marriages, expulsions from the society, and deaths; lists of ministers and other officials; and a running history of the church, whose membership apparently included white people, enslaved people, and free people of color. Church leaders mentioned included Enoch Jones and Bernard Overton, who were not identified by race but presumably were white, and Isaac Vail, Thomas Nixson, Rigdom Green, Eden Skinner, Sol Johnston, George Dickerson, and William Boyman, who were identified as people of color. Isaac McDonald, who also is identified as a person of color, is mentioned in 1829 regarding his appeal. John M. Hall "professed religion" in October 1827, but in September 1829 he was describred as a "runaway," which suggests that he was an enslaved person.

At the beginning of the church records section of the volume there is a narrative describing the number of white members and Black members beginning in 1808, and again for 1809 and 1810. Later in this section there is similar quantitative membership information recorded for 1824. There is also an 1813 report that four Black adults and twelve infants were baptized. In 1815, the minutes report that the conference considered the "situation" in which Black members had taken the liberty of joining an "evening out," but apparently no decision was reached about how to respond.