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No restrictions. Open for research.

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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 Stafford Family Papers #5686, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from John Welles Brainard in June 2016 (Acc. 102591).

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.

Encoded by: Laura Smith, August 2017

Processed by Nicole Cvjetnicanin, Rebecca Stubbs, March 2019.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine ethnic 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 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 ethnicity to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@email.unc.edu.

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.

• Bernadey, Elizabeth.
• Brandegee, Augustus, 1828-1904.
• Cumberland Island (Ga.)
• Free African Americans--Connecticut.
• Free African Americans--Georgia.
• Stafford family.
• Stafford, Robert, 1790-1877.

Elizabeth "Zabette" Bernardey (circa 1822) was born a free woman of color on Cumberland Island, Ga., to French plantation owner Pierre Bernardey (1784-1827) and Marie-Jean, a Martinique woman of mixed race who was a member of Bernardey's household. Educated from a young age, Bernardey worked as a nurse in the household of local plantation owner Robert Stafford (1790-1877). Due to legal complexities of being a free woman of color, Bernardey was sold to and became the legal ward and property of Stafford in 1842. Bernardey and Stafford ultimately had six children together. In 1851, Stafford moved Barnardey and the children to Groton, Conn., while he remained in Georgia. While in Connecticut, the lawyer and politician Augustus Brandegee (1828-1904) oversaw the education, legal, and financial affairs of the Stafford children, including managing trusts for three daughters. Bernardey and the children remained in Connecticut through the end of the Civil War, while Stafford started a second family in Georgia.

Correspondence regarding the lives and financial trusts of the daughters of Robert Stafford (1790-1877) and Elizabeth "Zabette" Bernardey (ca 1822), both of Cumberland Island, Ga. Much of the correspondence is between the Staffords and their lawyer, Augustus Brandegee (1828-1904). Stafford moved Bernardey and their children to Groton, Conn., in 1851, while Stafford remained in Georgia. Brandegee, a Connecticut-based lawyer and politician, oversaw much of the household's financial and legal duties, including managing for the education and financial trusts of the daughters.