Daniel Shine Hill Papers, 1842-1894

Collection Number: 04834

Collection Title: Daniel Shine Hill Papers, 1842-1894

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.

Expand/collapse Collection Overview

Size	1.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 500 items)
Abstract	Daniel Shine Hill (1812-1873) of Franklin County, N.C., was a white plantation owner and enslaver; he was also a businessman, a major in the Confederate Army, and an active participant in the temperance movement. The collection chiefly consists of business correspondence pertaining to the sale of cotton and the status of the cotton market; accounting sheets related to the purchase of dry goods, groceries, hardware, clothing, and textiles; and receipts. Hill most frequently dealt with merchants from Petersburg, Va., as well as local businessmen and other merchants along the eastern seaboard. Enslaved people are found in receipts and an account book that document trafficking through sale or the hiring out of their labor, skills, and knowledge; in accounting sheets that record the purchase of supplies for them; in a list of 88 enslaved people (born 1770-1858); and in a typed transcription of a diary that mentions enslaved people at Sunnyside in Louisburg, N.C. After the Civil War there are labor contracts with freed people. The account book also includes financial arrangements with overseers and recipes and folk remedies. Sons of the Temperance Society correspondence and related materials appear frequently throughout this collection, and there are some additional letters relating to Louisburg Female College, as well as family correspondence. Also included are notes of the stewards meetings of "Louisburg Station" of the Methodist Church, 1865-1867, and a copy of Daniel Shine Hill's will, 1873.
Creator	Hill, Daniel Shine, 1812-1873.
Curatorial Unit	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language	English.

Expand/collapse Information For Users

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 Daniel Shine Hill Papers #4834, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance: Received from George and Doris Davis of Louisburg, N.C., October 1996 (Acc. 96135) and from Sarah Davis in July 2001 (Acc. 99013), October 2001 (Acc. 99097 and Acc. 99098), and in November 2003 (Acc. 99652).

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.

Expand/collapse Processing Information

Processed by: John Ansley, February 1997

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, January 2002

Updated by: Matt Turi, 2004; Kathryn Michaelis, January 2010

Conscious editing by Nancy Kaiser, May 2024: Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical information, scope and content, and contents list.

In May 2024, archivists reviewed this collection to uncover more information about the lives of enslaved and free people of color. Containers that include materials related to enslaved and/or free people of color during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement and/or free people of color" or "Records of Reconstruction." Researchers are advised that the collection may include more documentation of slavery, free people of color, and Reconstruction than has been identified in this finding aid.

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.

Expand/collapse Subject Headings

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.

Expand/collapse Related Collections

Matthew Smart Davis Papers (#4125)
Hill and Davis Family Papers (#4393)

Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Daniel Shine Hill, son of Charles Applewhite and Rebecca Wesley Long Hill, was born in Franklin County, N.C., on 14 December 1812. In 1835, he married Susan Irwin Toole (1815-1878), with whom he had nine children, eight of whom survived to adulthood: Sarah Louisa Hill, born 13 October 1836, married Matthew S. Davis of Louisburg, N.C.; Madeline Elizabeth Hill, born 10 August 1839, married James H. Best of Wayne County, N.C.; Susan Rebecca Hill, born April 1842, died young; Mary Pauline Hill, born September 1845, married John R. Brooks; Florence Monterey Hill, born 24 July 1847, married Garland Jones of Raleigh, N.C., died 9 September 1906; Charles Geraldus Hill, born 1850, physician of Baltimore, Md., died 1927; Isabel Hill, born 1855, married Walter Stark of Oxford, N.C.; Carolina Toole Hill, born 1859, married Harold Churchman Painter of Baltimore, Md.; Daniel Sehon Hill, born 1862, married Florence Hartman.

Daniel Shine Hill lived in Louisburg, N.C., for most of his life. He owned a plantation and enslaved people; he was also a businessman, an active member of the Sons of the Temperance Society, and a major in the Confederate Army. Hill also served on the board of trustees of Louisburg Female College. Hill was active in his business and the temperance movement until his death in 1873.

Expand/collapse Scope and Content

Daniel Shine Hill (1812-1873) of Franklin County, N.C., was a white plantation owner and enslaver; he was also a businessman, a major in the Confederate Army, and an active participant in the temperance movement. The original deposit consists of business correspondence pertaining to the sale of cotton and the status of the cotton market; accounting sheets related to the purchase of dry goods, groceries, hardware, clothing, and textiles; and receipts. Hill most frequently dealt with merchants from Petersburg, Va., as well as local businessmen and other merchants along the eastern seaboard (e.g. Louisburg, N.C.; Baltimore, Md.; Norfolk, Va.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and New York, N.Y.). Enslaved people are found in receipts that document trafficking through sale or the hiring out of their labor, skills, and knowledge; in accounting sheets that record the purchase of supplies for them; and in a list of 88 enslaved people (born 1770-1858). After the Civil War there are labor contracts with freed people. Sons of the Temperance Society correspondence and related materials appear frequently throughout this collection and there are some additional letters relating to Louisburg Female College.

The addition of July 2001 consists of letters and receipts that are topically similar to the original deposit, as well as a typed transcription of a diary of Pauline Hill in which she mentioned several enslaved people at Sunnyside in Louisburg, N.C. Also included are notes of the stewards meetings of "Louisburg Station" of the Methodist Church, 1865-1867, and a copy of Daniel Shine Hill's will, 1873. There are several pieces of correspondence between Hill's wife, Susan Irwin Toole, and her daughter, Pauline Hill Brooks, which were written after Daniel Shine Hill's death.

The addition of November 2003 consists of an account book, 1852-1864, containing details of Hill's trafficking of enslaved people through the hiring out of their labor, skills, and knowledge; his financial arrangements with overseers, including a contract not to drink any ardent spirits while working for Hill; and recipes and folk remedies concerning broken China, whitewash, sealing wax, cough syrup, diarhea, bowel complaint, boot polish, butter, hair oil, billowed horse, ringbone, bed bugs, and other maladies. Also included are a receipt and miscellaneous ephemera.

Contents list

Expand/collapse Series Quick Links

Papers, 1852-1879 and undated (Addition of July 2001).
Papers, 1852-1894 (Addition of November 2003).

Expand/collapse Daniel Shine Hill Papers, 1842-1891.

About 450 items (1.0 linear feet).

Arrangement: chronological.

Business correspondence pertaining mainly to the sale of cotton and the status of the cotton market; accounting sheets for dry goods, groceries, hardware, clothing, and textiles; and receipts. Hill most frequently dealt with merchants from Petersburg, Va., as well as local businessmen and other merchants along the eastern seaboard (e.g. Louisburg, N.C.; Baltimore, Md.; Norfolk, Va.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and New York, N.Y.). Enslaved people are documented chiefly in receipts that concern trafficking through sale or the hiring out of their labor, skills, and knowledge; in accounting sheets that record the purchase of supplies for them; and in a list of 88 enslaved people who are identified by name, year of birth (1770-1858), and in some cases year of death. There are also labor contracts with freed people after the Civil War ended.

Hill was an active member of the Sons of the Temperance Society and correspondence and other materials concerning this organization begin in 1855 and appear frequently throughout this collection. There is some additional correspondence relating to Louisburg Female College.

Folder 1	Papers, 1842 Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: 11 April 1842: receipt for payment for Jim, an enslaved person who had been trafficked by sale from John Wilson, administrator of the estate of Ann Brooks, to Daniel Shine Hill and Richard Noble.
Folder 2	Papers, 1845
Folder 3	Papers, 1847-1848
Folder 4	Papers, 1849
Folder 5	Papers, 1850
Folder 6	Papers, 1851 Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: 16 July 1851: receipt of payment to Robert Atkinson for trafficking of an unidentified enslaved person through hiring out of their labor, skills, and knowledge to Daniel Shine Hill.
Folder 7	Papers, 1852 Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: 14 December 1853: receipt of payment to George W. Ruffin for H[enry] I. G. Ruffin for the trafficking of Lewis and Peter through the hiring out of their labor, skills, and knowledge to Daniel Shine Hill.
Folder 8	Papers, 1853
Folder 9	Papers, January-June 1854 Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: 1 January 1854: Daniel Shine Hill in account with Ballard Harnes & Davis, including charges for blankets for enslaved people.
Folder 10	Papers, July-November 1854 Includes a printed price list, The Weekly Newsletter and Prices Current, for Wills, Lea and Brownley of Petersburg, Va.
Folder 11	Papers, 1855 Includes a business letter discussing the price of tobacco and a newsletter from the Office of the Grand Worthy Patriarch concerning the Sons of the Temperance Society of South Carolina.
Folder 12	Papers, 1856
Folder 13	Papers, 1857 Includes letters, 17 April 1857 and 9 May 1857, that relate to faculty positions at Louisburg Female College. Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: 1 January 1857: receipt for payment to John H. Brodie by Daniel Shine Hill "to season Jack, John Fogg," which may document the trafficking of enslaved people through the hiring out of their labor, skills, and knowledge.
Folder 14	Papers, 1858 Includes a letter, 5 November 1858, that relates to the presidency of Louisburg Female College. Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: 22 May 1858: receipt for payment for ditching work by Elias, Bob, and Bob Branch, who may have been enslaved.
Folder 15	Papers, January-April 1859
Folder 16	Papers, May-November 1859 Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: 23 May 1859: note to Dr. Sills that stating that Austen, who may have been enslaved, had worked several days for Daniel Shine Hill. 1 August 1859: note to Dr. Sills that stating that Austen, who may have been enslaved, had worked a day for Daniel Shine Hill. 12 August 1859: note to Dr. Sills that stating that Austen, who may have been enslaved, had worked several days for Daniel Shine Hill.
Folder 17	Papers, January-May 1860 Includes a letter from Peebles, Plummer and Co. of Petersburg, Va., to Hill, 31 May 1860, that describes the tobacco market as being "exceedingly dull and sick."
Folder 18	Papers, June-December 1860 Includes a blank initiation form for the Sons of the Temperance Society and a letter from Jeremy Hilliam of Harrison County, Tex., 30 July 1860, to Hill describing a widespread drought and how it was affecting the corn and cotton crops.
Folder 19	Papers, 1861 Includes letters, 9 October 1861 and 9 December 1861, discussing the high cost of sugar and butter in the area. Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: 31 January 1862: Daniel Shine Hill in account with L. Carlile, including charges for shoes for enslaved people. 2 April 1861: note from Daniel Shine Hill to Dr. Sills, stating that Austen had worked several days. 1 July 1861: note from Daniel Shine Hill to Dr. Sills, stating that Austen had worked several days.
Folder 20	Papers, 1862 Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: 19 May 1862: note from Daniel Shine Hill to Dr. Sills, stating that Austen had worked several days.
Folder 21	Papers, 1863 Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: 1 May 1863: Daniel Shine Hill in account with W. G. Battle, including a note stating that cotton and fish had been sent and carried by Henry.
Folder 22	Papers, 1864
Folder 23	Papers, 1865 Includes a letter, 18 September 1865, describing the sale of Hill's cotton with a detailed list of the quantities and prices for which the cotton sold, and a letter, 11 September 1865, from Turner Myrick Jones to Hill concerning the presidency of Louisburg Female College.
Folder 24	Papers, January-September 1866 Includes a letter, 27 April 1866, criticizing the decision of the National Division of the Sons of Temperance to permit Black people as members.
Folder 25	Papers, October-December 1866
Folder 26	Papers, 1867
Folder 27	Papers, January-July 1868
Folder 28	Papers, August-December 1868 Includes a printed price list, Portsmouth Weekly Prices Current, of J.B. Hunter and Co. of Portsmouth, Va.
Folder 29	Papers, January-September 1869 Includes a printed price list of cart, wagon, and buggy materials for S. March and Co. of Norfolk, Va. Records of Reconstruction: 4 January 1869: labor contract between Daniel Shine Hill and Mingo Kelly, who is identified as a freed person, and his wife Caroline Kelly, his brother Tom and sister-in-law Peggy.
Folder 30	Papers, October-December 1869 Includes a printed price list, Wholesale Prices Current, from Prince and Hunter, General Commission Merchants of Portsmouth, Va.
Folder 31	Papers, January-April 1870 Includes a printed list, J. J. Biggs and General Merchant Commission, of price quotations from the cotton market for 27 January 1870; price lists for H. G. Vickery's pork provisions; two Baltimore Price-Current Letter-Sheets, 2 April 1870 and 9 April 1870; and a letter, 21 February 1870, with three items apparently printed by the Temperance Society: "The Rumseller's Proposal of Co-partnership to the Devil," "A Short Temperance Sermon," and "The Curse of Intemperance: A Warning from the Gallows and the Grave."
Folder 32	Papers, May-June 1870
Folder 33	Papers, July-December 1870
Folder 34	Papers, 1871 Records of Reconstruction: 14 February 1871: labor contract between Daniel Shine Hill and Charity Jane Bowden.
Folder 35	Papers, January-July 1872 Records of Reconstruction: 13 March 1872: letter from Paulina, Greene County, N.C., to Pa, reporting that Bro [?] had hired two white people and a Black person for his workforce; Sister Maddie had hired a daughter of one of the men as a cook but it did not work out; Adeline, who lived on the land was working as a cook for Maddie; Nora is also working as a cook. Includes a receipt, 20 July 1872, for tuition and expenses at Louisburg Female College.
Folder 36	Papers, August-November 1872
Folder 37	Papers, 1873
Folder 38	Papers, 1874
Folder 39	Papers, 1875
Folder 40	Papers, 1876
Folder 41	Papers, 1877
Folder 42	Papers, 1879
Folder 43	Papers, 1890
Folder 44	Papers, 1891
Folder 45	Papers, Undated Records of enslavement and/or free people of color: List of 88 enslaved people identified by name and year of birth, 1770-1858. Some death years are included (copied from the family bible of Daniel Shine Hill in 1911). Note from W. B. [Johnson?] to Mr. Hill concerning payment for procurement of fish by an unidentified enslaved person.

Expand/collapse Papers, 1852-1879 and undated (Addition of July 2001).

About 50 items.

Acquisitions information: Accession 99013

Arrangement: chronological.

The addition of July 2001 consists of letters and receipts that are topically similar to the original deposit, as well as a typed transcription of a diary of Pauline Hill in which she mentioned several enslaved people by name at Sunnyside in Louisburg, N.C. Also included are notes of the stewards meetings of "Louisburg Station" of the Methodist Church, 1865-1867, and a copy of Daniel Shine Hill's will, 1873. There are several pieces of correspondence between Hill's wife, Susan Irwin Toole, and her daughter, Pauline Hill Brooks, which were written after Daniel Shine Hill's death.

Folder 48

Papers, 1852-1879 and undated

Records of enslavement and/or free people of color:

22 August 1864: typed transcription of diary of Pauline Hill, at Sunnyside, a house in Louisburg, N.C., in which she mentioned "Aunt Nancy," the enslaved cook; "Aunt Juno," an enslaved seamstress; "Aunt Rosanna," an enslaved laundress, seamstress, and baker; Uncle Aaron, an enslaved carriage driver; Theodore, an enslaved butler; Rilla, an enslaved nurse; Aunt Tilla, an enslaved person; Aunt Jenny, an enslaved person; Uncle Henry, an enslaved gardener; and Jesse, an enslaved barrel maker. Pauline noted that enslaved people chiefly lived in a two-story structure.
1 September 1866: letter from J. Jones, Raleigh, N.C., to Daniel Shine Hill, Louisburg, N.C., writing about the controversy over permitting people of color to join the membership of the Order of Sons of Temperance.

Expand/collapse Papers, 1852-1894 (Addition of November 2003).

4 items.

Acquisitions information: Accession 99652

An account book, 1852-1864, containing details of Hill's trafficking of enslaved people through the hiring out of their labor, skills, and knowledge; his financial arrangements with overseers, including a contract not to drink any ardent spirits while working for Hill (page 39); and recipes and folk remedies concerning broken China, whitewash, sealing wax, cough syrup, diarhea, bowel complaint, boot polish, butter, hair oil, billowed horse, ringbone, bed bugs, and other maladies. Also included are a receipt and miscellaneous ephemera.

Folder 46

Account book, 1852-1864