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 Norton, Chilton, and Dameron Family Papers #3264, 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 Charles E. Dameron of Asheville, N.C., in February 1957 and Margot Baldwin of New York, N.Y., in May 1999 (Acc. 98371).

Received from Margot Baldwin of New York, N.Y.

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: David Stickney, Roslyn Holdzkom, February 1991 with subsequent addtions

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, January 2010

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.

• Chilton family.
• Chilton, Sarah Norton, 1823-1905.
• Clinton (Miss.)--Race relations.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Supplies and stores.
• Cusachs family.
• Dameron family.
• Dameron, Courtenay Norton, 1824-1910.
• Dameron, William H., -1872.
• Families--Louisiana--Social life and customs.
• Families--Mississippi--Social life and customs.
• Medicine--Formulae, receipts, prescriptions.
• Mississippi--Race relations--20th century.
• New Orleans (La.)--Social life and customs.
• Norton family.
• Plantation life--Louisiana.
• Plantation life--Mississippi.
• Slave bills of sale--Mississippi.
• Spiritualism.
• Vicksburg (Miss.)--Social life and customs.

The collection includes chiefly letters, 1815-1910, relating to members of the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families. Topics include farming, activities of relatives and friends, business matters, and household routine. Antebellum letters are chiefly between Norton family members in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, and Mississippi, especially in Vicksburg, about farming and family matters. Letters written during the Civil War are chiefly from William H. Dameron at the Confederate Commissary Department at Meridian, Miss., to his wife, Courtenay Norton Dameron, in New Orleans, mostly about family matters, but with references to commissary work. While most post-Civil War letters are about family matters, a few discuss the 1875 race riots relating to elections in Clinton, Miss., and some discuss spiritualism, especially Sarah Norton Chilton's attempts in the mid-1870s to contact dead relatives and friends. Other papers include financial and legal documents, including a few records of slave sales in Mississippi; clippings; cures and remedies; genealogical data, including information about the Cusachs family as well as the Norton, Chilton, and Dameron families; notebooks; and family pictures.

• Oversize papers (OP-3264/1-11)
• Pictures (P-3264/1-37)
• C-3264 Confederate bonds and currency (Item missing as of 6 January 2010)