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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 Archibald Hunter Arrington Papers #3240, 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 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 from Mrs. R. H. Gregory, Sr., of Rocky Mount, N.C., in October 1956, and her daughter, Mrs. J. C. Marrow of Tarboro, N.C., in February 1960 and in September 1965.

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: Scott Philyaw, May 1992

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Conscious editing by Nancy Kaiser, July 2022: abstract, headings, biographical note, scope content note, 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.

This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

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.

• Alabama--Social life and customs.
• Arrington Family Plantation (Montgomery County, Ala.)
• Arrington Family Plantation (Nash County, N.C.)
• Arrington family.
• Arrington, A. H. (Archibald Hunter), 1809-1872.
• Arrington, John Arrington, 1764-1844.
• Arrington, John Peter, fl. 1851-1895.
• Arrington, Kate Wimberly, 1834-1871.
• Arrington, Mary Jones, 1820-1851.
• Arrington, Samuel L. (Samuel Lewis), 1806-1878.
• Confederate States of America--Officials and employees.
• Dortch, Wm. T. (William T.), 1824-1889.
• Enslaved persons--Legal status, laws, etc.--North Carolina.
• Enslaved persons--North Carolina--Registers.
• Families--Alabama.
• Families--North Carolina.
• McRae, D. K. (Duncan Kirkland), 1820-1888.
• Moore, B. F. (Bartholomew Figures), 1801-1878.
• Nash County (N.C.)--Officials and employees--History--19th century.
• Nash County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• North Carolina Secession Convention.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1861-1865.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1865-1950.
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Plantations--Alabama--Montgomery County.
• Plantations--North Carolina--Nash County.
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--Alabama.
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--North Carolina.
• Slave bills of sale--Alabama.
• Slave bills of sale--North Carolina.
• Slavery--Alabama.
• Slavery--North Carolina.
• Slavery--United States--History--19th century—Sources.

• Mary Jones Arrington Papers (#3241);
• George W. Arrington Papers (#3471);
• James J. Philips Papers (#972).

Archibald Hunter Arrington (1809-1872), son of John (1764-1844) and Elizabeth Arrington (d. 1815), was a white plantation and business owner, an enslaver, and a U.S. and Confederate congressman, and local official of Nash County, N.C. On 24 April 1839, he married Mary Jones Arrington (1820-1851), daughter of Peter (circa 1768-1837) and Barbara Arrington (d. circa 1847), also of Nash County, N.C., with whom he had two children, Mary (fl. 1848-1883) and John Peter (fl. 1851-1895), who served as sheriff of Nash County. Mary died, and, in 1855, Archibald married Kate Wimberly (1834-1871). Children of the second marriage included Thomas Mann (1857-1918), Archibald Hunter (1858-1892), Samuel Lewis (1860-1918), Robert Wimberly (1863-1928), George Wimberly (1864-1885), and Joseph Calhoun (1867-1897).

The Arringtons were among the wealthiest families of antebellum North Carolina. They owned a number of plantations and enslaved people in Nash County, N.C., and in Montgomery County, Alabama, where Archibald's brother, Samuel L. Arrington (fl. 1806-1866), lived. In addition to agricultural pursuits, Archibald was active in politics on the national, state, and local levels. In the 1840s, he was elected as a Democrat to the 27th and 28th Congresses, but was defeated in his 1844 re-election bid. He also served in the North Carolina Secession Convention and was elected, in 1861, to the first Confederate Congress, but once again lost his bid for re election. In 1866, he served as a delegate to the Union National Convention in Philadelphia. At the local level, he served as chairman of the Nash County Court of Common Pleas, 1866-1867, and as Nash County commissioner, 1868.

Source: Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.

Not much is known about the enslaved and freed people who are documented in the collection beyond their names and the names of the people who enslaved them or hired them after the American Civil War. In some cases birth and death dates and family relationships are available. Among the many enslaved people represented in the collection are the following:

1830s, Nash County, N.C.: Peter, Alston, Ned, Cary, Sofia, Frederick, George, Ruthe, Delsy, Arthur, Bob, Dolly, Cherry Ann, Turner, Old Rose, Violet, Charlotte, Isham, Lary, Peggy, Harry, Chana, Cromwell, Lary, Carly, Little Peggy, Martha, Mary, Cady and her daughter Martha, Sister, Joseph, Ruinny, Thomas, Kiziah, Alston (alias Shaver), Anthony, Ellick, Henry, Dennis, John, Turner, Alford, Daphny, Esther, Susan, Nancy, Mike, Dick, Solon, Merica, Mary, Aasty, Harriet, Hannah, Caroline, Millny, Jerrymiah, Peter, William, Judy, Jenny, Tom, Hardy, Gram, Harriet, Leaive, Luke (blacksmith), Jacob, Amos, William, Lucinda, Sally, Sarah and her children (Mariah, Leah, Burton, Henry, Robert), Abram, Anthony, Jenny, Ian, Murica, Bryant, Silvia, Peter, Solomon, Elbert, Daniel, Mary, Nancy, Terripe(?), Lucy, Frances, Pleasant and her children (Key, Andrew, and Penny), Millny and her child William, Peggy, Mariah-Willis, Fid(?), Mirna, Moses, Harriet, Celia, Tilley, Jack, Chany, Willis, Polly, George, Malvina, Arthur (blacksmith), Davy (blacksmith), Isham (blacksmith), Ferry, Charlotte and her child Tom, Mariah and Sylvia (child), Lear, Louisa and her child Alice, Sherwood, Chany and her children (Stepny and Alsy).

1840s, Montgomery County, Ala.: Willis (child), Chany (woman).

1850s, Montgomery County, Ala.: Sarah (about 23 years old in 1856), Virginia (16 years old in 1859).

The majority of the papers relate to Arrington's agricultural and business pursuits in Nash County, N.C., and Montgomery County, Ala. Records documenting enslaved and freed people include provisions accounts, bills of sale, hiring out contracts, labor contracts for freed people, wills and estate inventories, and lists with ages and birthdates of enslaved people. Other materials include many receipts for cotton sales; accounts with merchants; land records; promissory notes and records of notes due; partnership agreements and mercantile records; sales of stock; insurance policies and premiums; Confederate tax-in-kind documents and receipts; and miscellaneous receipts for physicians' services, educational tuition, tools, transportation, blacksmith work, and other goods and services.

There is also correspondence, with many of the letters relating to business matters. Among the correspondents are: Samuel L. Arrington, who lived in Alabama and assisted his brother in the management of the Montgomery plantations; a succession of overseers, concerning their contracts and reporting on plantation affairs; members of the Arrington, Williams, Mann, and related families concerning family property and inheritances; William T. Dortch, giving legal opinions on cases of bankruptcy and in property and tenant questions, and about charges of misconduct leveled against Arrington by Jesse J. Walker in 1868; and Bartholomew F. Moore, also commenting on legal cases and the postwar political climate of North Carolina. There is also correspondence with general merchant factors and commission merchants, including Lehman, Durr, & Co. and John H. Murphey of Montgomery, Kader Biggs & Co. of Norfolk, Va., and DeRosset & Brown of Wilmington, N.C.

There are also personal letters that discuss family news, including births, marriages, and deaths; courtship, especially of Kate Wimberly; illnesses of family members; education; travel; Arrington's living arrangements while serving in the U.S. and Confederate Congresses; and other matters.

Few items relate to Arrington's political activity. There are however, some materials, 1841-1845, relating to his congressional career and others concerning his experiences at the Secession Convention and in Confederate Congress. These include a few published speeches and some notes on laws regulating the oversight of enslaved people; a series of letters, 1857-1858, to Arrington from D. K. McRae (1820-1888) on the latter's gubernatorial campaign, his concern over political alignments, lack of adequate financing, general campaign strategy and platform, and conviction that he had a better chance of winning than Arrington would have had; letters to Arrington reporting on voting and political alignment in Confederate regiments; a number of form letters to Arrington, in his capacity as a local official, from postwar military governments; and other individual letters that briefly comment on political matters. Also included are several 1893 endorsements collected by J. P. Arrington in his quest for an appointment as deputy collector for the Internal Revenue.

• Oversize papers (OPF-3240/1)