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 Frederic Seip Papers #3413-z, 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 Micah F. Seip of Alexandria, Louisiana, in 1959, and from Fred Seip of Clarksville, Tennessee, in 1957, 1959, and 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: Shonra Newman, February 1991

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

This inventory is an edited version of a previous inventory compiled by B. Allan of the Southern Historical Processing staff.

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.

• Agriculture--Louisiana--History--19th century.
• Alexandria (La.)--History--19th century.
• Cotton gins and ginning--Mississippi--History--19th century.
• Cotton growing--Louisiana--History--19th century.
• Cotton trade--Mississippi--History--19th century.
• Diaries (Blank-books)
• Oak Isle Plantation (Alexandria, La.)
• Physicians--Mississippi--History--19th century.
• Plantation owners--Louisiana.
• Plantations--Louisiana--Alexandria.
• Seip, Frederic, 1840-1911.
• Seip, Frederic.
• Slavery--Louisiana.

Dr. Frederic Seip (d. 1818) practiced medicine in partnership with Dr. Andrew McCrery (various spellings) in the vicinity of Natchez, Miss. He was married to Ann Seip, and had at least one son, John.

Major Frederic Seip (1840-1911), grandson of Dr. Frederic Seip, was the son of Dr. John Seip and Eliza Martin Seip of Oak Isle Plantation in Alexandria, Louisiana. He graduated from Princeton University in 1860 and returned to Alexandria where he managed the family plantation until the beginning of the Civil War. He served as a Confederate soldier during the war, rising to the rank of major. After the surrender, he returned to Oak Isle Plantation, which had been burned, and rebuilt his home. In 1865, Frederic married Adelia Flint (d. 1878), who died in 1878. In 1882, he married Emeline Flint, daughter of James Timothy Flint, a lawyer, and granddaughter of Timothy Flint, writer and historian of Salem, Mass. They had five children: Adelia, who died in 1884, and four sons, John, James, Micah, and Fred.

These papers consist mostly of accounts, bills, receipts, promissory notes, and other financial papers of Dr. Frederic Seip, and similar papers relating to his estate. There are about six business letters in the group.

Seip's medical partner, Andrew McCrery, was also the executor of his estate. Their address was Natchez, Mississippi. The papers include accounts payable to the doctors for professional services, and also accounts owed by Seip for merchandise purchased at Natchez, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. Seip was also engaged in planting and ginning cotton, and a few of the papers relate to his agricultural activities. Papers of 1820 are business papers of Ann Seip, who was traveling to Philadelphia that year with a child and servant. Dr. Seip was also engaged in planting and ginning cotton during his lifetime and a few of the papers refer to his activities in this area.

Also included is an 1860 diary fragment of Frederic Seip, grandson of Dr. Frederic Seip, kept at Oak Isle Plantation in Alexandria, Louisiana. It contains the weekly cotton-picking record for the plantation, and a journal of other farm work done such as the cultivation of potatoes, strawberries, corn, and vegetables, and the care of pigs. Seip also recorded the weather and information about his slaves. He mentioned the first drill of a military company.

The final item in the collection is a typescript of "The Burning of Alexandria, Louisiana, in May 1864," a paper delivered before a Confederate reunion in 1908 by Major Frederic Seip, CSA, sketching the history of Alexandria during the Civil War.