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Size | 3.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1800 items) |
Abstract | George W. Burwell was a physician, planter, and businessman of Mecklenburg County, Va. He had family and business connections to Henderson, Granville County, N.C., and other locations along the North Carolina-Virginia border, largely through his brothers H. H., Louis, William, and Armistead R., and the family of his wife Elizabeth Gayle Burwell, particulary her parents Thomas Gayle (d. 1855?) and Elizabeth Gayle (d. 1868?). Correspondence, 1849-1883; financial and legal materials, 1786 and 1800-1884; and other papers relating to the Burwells, Gayles, and members of related families. Business letters chiefly document lending money and collecting debts, purchasing and selling land, managing tobacco plantations, and selling tobacco and other crops through commission merchants in Richmond and Petersburg, Va. Some letters document plantation life, including buying and selling slaves, work performed by slaves and others, and hiring out of slaves. Scattered throughout is a small number of family letters, chiefly dealing with health and other routine matters. During the Civil War, there are a few letters relating to slaves forced from their homes by Union soldiers during a raid and a letter probably dictated by a slave who was sent to work at a Confederate camp near Richmond. Financial and legal materials include agricultural records--overseers' accounts, slave bills of sale, contracts with freedmen and other laborers, and household bills and accounts. Other financial and legal items relate to money lending and debt collection. Also included are deeds, wills, and papers relating to the estates of Thomas and Elizabeth Gayle and of John S. and Frances Gregory. There are also a few printed advertisements and related items, 1860s- 1870s; documents relating to Burwell's exemption from conscription during the Civil War; and a few medical notes and accounts. |
Creator | Burwell, George W., d. 1873. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom and Jill Snider with assistance of the Technical Services staff, May 1995
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Roslyn Holdzkom and Jill Snider with assistance of the Technical Services staff
Back to TopThe 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.
Correspondence, 1849-1883; financial and legal materials, 1786 and 1800-1884; and other papers relating to the Burwells, Gayles, and members of related families. Business letters chiefly document lending money and collecting debts, purchasing and selling land, managing tobacco plantations, and selling tobacco and other crops through commission merchants in Richmond and Petersburg, Va. Some letters document plantation life, including buying and selling slaves, work performed by slaves and others, and hiring out of slaves. Scattered throughout is a small number of family letters, chiefly dealing with health and other routine matters. During the Civil War, there are a few letters relating to slaves forced from their homes by Union soldiers during a raid and a letter probably dictated by a slave who was sent to work at a Confederate camp near Richmond. Financial and legal materials include agricultural records--overseers' accounts, slave bills of sale, contracts with freedmen and other laborers, and household bills and accounts. Other financial and legal items relate to money lending and debt collection. Also included are deeds, wills, and papers relating to the estates of Thomas and Elizabeth Gayle and of John S. and Frances Gregory. There are also a few printed advertisements and related items, 1860s- 1870s; documents relating to Burwell's exemption from conscription during the Civil War; and a few medical notes and accounts.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Letters and other items relating to George W. and Elizabeth Gayle Burwell and members of the Burwell, Gayle, and related families living along the North Carolina-Virginia border. Many items are business letters between George W. Burwell in Mecklenburg County, Va., and Granville County, N.C., and his brothers H. H., Louis, William, and Armistead R., chiefly in Henderson, N.C. Members of Elizabeth's family, largely in Mecklenburg County, Va., were also active in these business activities, particularly Elizabeth's father Thomas Gayle. Note that there is virtually no mention of George's medical activities in these materials.
Early business letters chiefly relate to land purchases and sales, but there are also letters about managing tobacco plantations and about selling tobacco and other crops through commission merchants in Richmond and Petersburg, Va. Some of these letters document daily work. For example, on 5 February 1851, Thomas Gayle in Mecklenburg County, wrote to George in Warrenton that he was sending "Wallis to cut wood in the place of lewis. he dose not under stand malling well." On 8 January 1852, there is a letter from brothers H. H. Burwell and Armistead R. Burwell to George about hiring out a slave in Raleigh, N.C.
Also included among the early materials are non-business family letters discussing routine matters, chiefly from Elizabeth's sister Sarah A. S. Gayle to Elizabeth. These letters are particularly plentiful in 1850, but appear with decreasing frequency throughout the collection. In 1855, there are letters from George, on a tobacco-selling trip, to Elizabeth about Thomas Gayle's ill health and other family issues.
Beginning in the late 1850s and continuing throughout the collection, letters show that George and his brothers spent a good deal of their time negotiating money-lending deals and collecting from those to whom they lent money. George was particularly active in this area, but he often asked his brothers for assistance. For example, there is a series of letters, 1860-1861, in which George solicited Armistead's help in dealing with John S. Overby, who may have served as George's collection agent. This same Overby turns up in August 1862 with a letter he wrote to George upon hearing about George and Elizabeth's daughter Mollie, who died of diphtheria on 15 August (handwritten obituary included). A letter of 27 June 1859 documents a dispute over damage to a neighbor's property allegedly done by George's team of oxen.
Letters in the 1860s contain few references to the Civil War until 1864 when there are some to Elizabeth from relatives who wrote about homefront concerns and battle news. Note that materials relating to George's exemption from conscription are filed in series 3.
Letters of interest in 1864-1865 include the following:
10 May 1864: a letter from James Burwell, apparently one of George's slaves, from a camp near Richmond, Va. The letter, probably dictated by James has two parts: the first part is addressed to "Mr. Master" and requests food and other supplies; the second part is addressed to James's wife Mary and sends his love and respect.
1 July 1864: a note from Blanche W. Sydnar to George with the news that Sam, claiming that he had been forced from George's home by Yankees, had arrived at her house and that she had written him a pass to get home.
8 July 1864: a letter from J. G. Hood to George saying, "I suppose I have in my possession a Neg[ro] Boy that belongs to you. his name is Peter." The letter describes Peter as 12-14 years of age and in good health.
12 August 1864: an invitation to George to attend an "investigation of the conduct of the negroes of the neighborhood during the Yankee raid."
16 December 1864: a letter from a cousin to George about the cousin's being wounded.
19 December 1864: a notice from the Richmond and Danville Railroad hiring hands at $450 and $400 per annum.
29 December 1864: a letter from brother William A. Burwell to George about the situation in North Carolina, where men up to 50 years of age had been called to service.
11 September 1865: a note from Captain M. L. Kellogg to George ordering him "to settle with John (colored) at the rate agreed upon by him and you."
Circa 12 December 1865: George's note about wanting to hire a man to manage his house and a woman to cook, wash, iron, and milk. The couple could bring their children, especially if among them a girl old enough to nurse and a boy old enough to wait table and tend the horses and cows.
Circa 1865: a note from Captain M. L. Kellogg to George stating, "You are hereby directed to bring the woman 'Milley' before me to answer to charges preferred against her."
In 1866, letters chiefly relate to land deals; debt collection efforts; and agricultural sales, especially to the dismal state of the tobacco market. On 25 June 1866, there is a letter indicating that Otis F. Manson, George's brother-in-law and frequent business partner, was experiencing financial difficulties.
In 1867, there are many letters about court decision relating to collecting debts and to George's interest in finding new investments. There are also letters about difficulties in hiring help, including one, dated 11 March 1867, in which a cousin told George that "...it is hard for me to get off from hom[e] as I have not had a han[d] since Lee surrendered. [M]ine all left except 2 women & children."
On 31 December 1867, there is a letter from brother H. H. Burwell about brother Armistead's death. H. H. wrote that Armistead had been summoned before the Henderson Freedmen's Bureau "on account of a worthless negro." Leaving the Bureau late at night, Armistead caught the cold that led to his death two weeks later.
Materials 1868-1875 are chiefly business letters, largely from H. H. Burwell, with a few non-business items interspersed. Loans, collections, crops, and real estate deals are chief topics of conversation. Beginning in 1870, George had dealings with T. D. Jeffress, grocer and commission merchant of Richmond, including major loans to Jeffress in 1870 and insurance and other business with him in the following years. In a letter to George, dated 20 January 1873, Jeffress noted that there were "...false rumors in circulation in your county with reference to my financial condition" (see Series 2 for a broadside dated 1873 relating to the bankruptcy of Thomas D. Jeffress). Beginning in 1870, there is evidence of business deals involving Blair Burwell, George's nephew who moved to Baltimore in 1872 to join A. L. Huntt & Co. (see Series 2 for materials on the failure of this company).
Non-business letters include one on 15 August 1870 recording the death of another of George and Elizabeth's daughters; one on 28 March 1871 that mentions Elizabeth's feeble health and several relating to her death in August 1872; and one on 21 February 1872 summoning George to a meeting organized to lend support to a neighbor wrongly imprisoned in the local jail. There is also a letter, dated 18 January 1872, from one of George's friends who was traveling in Texas, where he observed that heavy agricultural work was usually performed by the non-white population; the letter concludes with the statement: "I have seen an eagle."
The few items dated 1880-1883 are minor business letters addressed to H. H. Burwell. Undated items include a note from one of George's neighbors apologizing for his drunken behavior and another that reads: "Cousin George, Send me the measure of your head, and a piece of morocco to put in your hat. Cousin Bettie."
Folder 1 |
1849-1850 |
Folder 2 |
1851 |
Folder 3 |
1852-1857 |
Folder 4 |
1858-1859 |
Folder 5 |
1860-1861 |
Folder 6 |
1862-1863 |
Folder 7 |
1864-1865 |
Folder 8 |
1866 |
Folder 9 |
1867 January-September |
Folder 10 |
1867 October-December |
Folder 11 |
1868 |
Folder 12 |
1869 |
Folder 13 |
1870 |
Folder 14 |
1871 |
Folder 15 |
1872 January-February |
Folder 16 |
1872 March-May |
Folder 17 |
1872 June-December |
Folder 18 |
1873-1875 |
Folder 19 |
1880-1883 |
Folder 20 |
Undated and fragments |
Arrangement: chronological; sorted by year.
Chiefly plantation, loan collection, household accounts and receipts, deeds, and estate papers of George W. and Elizabeth Gayle Burwell, with a considerable number of items relating to the administration of the estates of Elizabeth's parents, Thomas and Elizabeth Gayle, and the estates of John S. and Frances Gregory. A few items pertain to George's medical practice; to the settlement of the estate of William A. Burwell; and to the financial affairs of Blair Burwell, who was a partner in the failed A. L. Huntt & Co. of Baltimore. Miscellaneous items also pertain to the lands owned and the financial dealings of Obediah Coleman and Otis F. Manson.
There are no items dated 1801, 1804-1810, 1812-1817, 1820-1828, 1830-1831, 1837-1839, or 1845-1846. Note that undated materials include items relating to the estates of Thomas Gayle, John S. Gregory, and George W. Burwell; accounts with laborers; and miscellaneous items that are mostly George's receipts, accounts, and loan notes.