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 Beaman and Robinson Family Papers #5110-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Susan Kerr Searle of Aiken, S.C., in October 2002 (Acc. 99381).

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.

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.

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• Beaman family.
• Beaman, John Robert, 1813-1892.
• Clinton (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Clinton (N.C.)--History.
• Clinton Academy (Clinton, N.C.).
• Real property--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Robinson family.
• Robinson, John, 1792-1851.
• Sampson County (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Sampson County (N.C.)--History.
• Slave bills of sale--North Carolina.
• Slavery--North Carolina.

John Robert Beaman, born in 1813 to John Beaman and Colen Carraway of Sampson County, N.C., was raised by his bedridden "Uncle Carraway" on Carraway's plantation. Beaman eventually inherited this property, but lost it and several other fortunes over the course of his lifetime. Beaman also was the guardian or trustee of several individuals.

Beaman married Elizabeth Robinson in 1837 and built a house in Clinton, N.C., that same year. Elizabeth, born in 1817, was the daughter of John Robinson (1792-1851). Robinson was involved with a hotel, which survived until the early 20th century.

Although early Beaman family members were Quakers, John Robert was not and was instead involved with the sale and hiring out of slaves. He was also involved with indentured servants, at least one of whom worked as an apprentice in Robinson's hotel.

Beaman died on 27 January 1892, with Elizabeth following in 1895.

The Beaman and Robinson family papers consist of documentation of legal and financial transactions entered into by John Robert Beaman of Clinton, N.C., and his father-in-law, John Robinson. These papers, primarily produced during the middle of the 19th century in Sampson County, N.C., include indentures; bills of sale for slaves, either handwritten or on preprinted forms; notices of debts owed or paid; deeds of gift; wills; assessments of property; informal accounting lists; a survey of the Clinton Academy property; and correspondence of a financial nature. Robinson's agent, John Carroll, represented him in a number of the transactions. There is also a small number of the items relating to individuals with unspecified or unknown connections to either Beaman or Robinson. It is possible, but not certain, that these papers were stored in the same safe as the Beaman and Robinson papers and were, at some point, comingled with them. The most frequently encountered names on these papers are I. B. Cox and Charles Harrison.