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 Isaac Jarratt Papers #3514, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Some materials available on microfilm.

Additional microfilm available 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

Purchased from Raynor Hubbell of Griffin, Ga. in November 1960; purchased from Rita Trotz of The Printed Page of Savannah Ga., in July 1973; photocopies of originals lent by J. Bruce Jarratt of East Bend, N.C., in August 1979 (Acc. 79300); purchased from the Jarratt Estate auction in Yadkin County, N.C., July 1996 (Acc. 96100); purchased from Charles Apfelbaum in March 2007 (Acc. 100614); purchased from Rinda Estes, June 2007 (Acc. 100693) and February 2008 (Acc. 100874).

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: Manuscripts Dept. Staff; Margaret Dickson, July 2007; Meaghan Alston and Nancy Kaiser, July 2021

Encoded by: Margaret Dickson, July 2007

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, February 2010

Updated by: Laura Hart, May 2021

Conscious Editing Work by: Laura Hart and Nancy Kaiser, March 2020. Updated abstract, biographical note, scope content note, subject headings, and 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.
• Cherokee Indians--History--19th century.
• Choctaw Indians--History--19th century.
• Clingman family.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 26th.
• Enslaved persons--North Carolina--Registers.
• Families--Alabama.
• Families--North Carolina.
• Indians of North America--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Jarratt family.
• Jarratt, Isaac Augustus, 1841-1890.
• Jarratt, Isaac, active 1812-1875.
• McNairy County (Tenn.)--Economic conditions.
• McNairy County (Tenn.)--Social life and customs.
• Montgomery (Ala.)--Economic conditions.
• Montgomery (Ala.)--Social life and customs.
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Puryear family.
• Slavery--Alabama.
• Slavery--North Carolina.
• Slavery--United States--History--19th century--Sources.
• Surry County (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Surry County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Trafficking in enslaved persons--Alabama.
• Trafficking in enslaved persons--North Carolina.
• United States--History--War of 1812--Claims.
• Yadkin County (N.C.)--History.

• Clingman and Puryear Family Papers (#2661)
• Isaac Jarratt Papers and Tyre Glenn Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University

White landholder and merchant of Montgomery and Huntsville, Ala., Isaac Jarratt (active 1812-1875) was an enslaver and a slave trader and human trafficker in partnership with Tyre Glen (d. 1875). Glen and Jarratt operated their human trafficking business between Alabama and North Carolina from 1830 to 1835. Jarratt served in the American military during the War of 1812. His son, Isaac Augustus Jarratt (1841-1890), of Huntsville, Conrads, and Fayetteville, N.C., was an enslaver, plantation owner, merchant, and distiller. The younger Jarratt received an A.B. from the University of North Carolina in 1861 and served as a captain in Company C, 26th North Carolina Infantry Regiment of the Confederate Army, during the Civil War.

The collection includes photocopies of birth and death records of enslaved people recorded in a Jarratt family bible and financial records for the purchase of enslaved people by Jarratt family members. There are also family and business letters, 1832-1890, and a few financial, legal, and military documents pertaining to the Isaac Jarratt family of Surry (now Yadkin) County, N.C., and Montgomery, Ala. Early items primarily concern personal news of family and friends and a variety of business transactions, including purchases of land, debt settlements, and a carriage in New York City. Two 1835 letters to the elder Jarratt from cousins discuss one's resettlement in McNairy County, Tenn., and the other's travels through the Choctaw and Cherokee nations. Civil War era material consists of two 1864 military enrollment orders for Captain Isaac A. Jarratt of the 26th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, Company C.

Other items include an 1875 exchange of letters between the elder Jarratt and the federal pension office concerning his application for a pension as a veteran of the War of 1812; photocopies of family records pertaining primarily to the white Clingman family; a photocopy of a 1978 class paper about the "White House" of Yadkin County, N.C.; and a photocopy of a 1979 history of the white Clingman, Puryear, and Jarratt families.

The Addition of March 2007 consists of one small account book belonging to Isaac Jarratt listing transactions for goods bought, clothing and cloth, taxes, and traveling expenses.

The Addition of June 2007 includes business and personal correspondence relating to the Jarratt family from between 1864 and 1929, as well as bills, receipts, orders and order forms, and a small book, The Death of Abel, inscribed to Hal Jarrett from "Auntie," 22 June 1891.

The Addition of February 2008 includes letters to Harriet Jarratt; bank receipts and promissory notes; survey of a plot of land; a recipe for a "white mixture" cure; and a flier with populist and racially divisive language, that calls for a slate of new officials in Yadkin County to address chronic lack of road improvements, public education, and support for industries.

Microfilm reels (M-3514/1-2)