John Edwin Fripp Papers, 1817-1944

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Summary

Creator:
Fripp, John Edwin, 1831-1906.
Abstract:

The collection documents John Edwin Fripp, a white owner of cotton plantations on St. Helena Island and Chechessee Bluff, Beaufort County, S.C.; his wife, Isabelle Jenkins Fripp (1833-1883); their eleven children; and the people enslaved by the Fripps. There is also documentation of people enslaved by Jane Hay Barnwell and by Joseph Hazel. Manuscript volumes and papers relate chiefly to the cotton plantation and family life. Of note are lists of enslaved people and descriptions of their activities, illnesses, and religious services from the perspective of their white enslaver. Other topics include Fripp's holdings in "The Village" on St. Helena Island and in Grahamville, S.C.; his accounts with various factors in Charleston, S.C.; his post American Civil War retirement of his debts and the small farming in which he engaged; and starting in the late 1880s, his position as overseer for the Chelsea Plantation Club, Beaufort County, S.C., where he managed the hunt and rounded up poachers.

Extent:
25 items (0.5 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

John Edward Fripp was born 26 November 1831 on St. Helena Island, S.C. He was a descendant of John Fripp, who came to America in 1670 with a grant of land on St. Helena.

Fripp owned several plantations on St. Helena Island. He also owned a plantation at Chechessee Bluff ("The Bluff") in Beaufort County, S.C., which he purchased in 1857. While Fripp maintained his family, the people he enslaved, and other possessions at the Bluff, he seems to have spent a good deal of his time traveling among his holdings. To these journeys were added trips to his summer homes in "The Village" on St. Helena Island and in Grahamville, near the Bluff.

Fripp apparently served in some capacity during the Civil War, through which he managed to hold onto his land. After the War, he paid off his debts and continued farming on a much reduced scale. Starting in the late the 1880s, Fripp, while continuing to farm, worked as overseer for the Chelsea Plantation Club, where his duties included supplying game for the hunt and bringing poachers to justice. He died on 22 May 1906.

Fripp was married to Isabelle Jenkins Fripp, who was born on 5 November 1833 and died on 4 August 1883. The couple produced eleven children: Mary Rosa (b. 1853); Julian Jenkins (b. 1855); Edgar Walter (b. 1857); Florence Amanda (b. 1859); Daniel Perry (b. 1860); Thomas Screven (b. 1862); Ella Rosalie (b. 1864); Eliza Emily (b. 1867); Charles Benjamin (b. 1870); Robert Lee (b. 1872); and Alice Louisa (b. 1875).

Scope and content:

This collection consists of eight manuscript volumes, a few miscellaneous papers, and one volume of typed transcriptions of parts of four of the manuscript volumes and a few of the papers. Because many of the manuscript volumes include several types of entries (chiefly accounts or narratives in the form of diary entries or short memoranda), it has not been possible to categorize them by type of volume. The typed transcriptions were made by the Southern Historical Collection at the request of the donor around 1944.

Acquisition information:

Received from Mrs. R. L. Fripp of Beaufort, S.C., and others in the 1940s.

Processing information:

Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, July 1990

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, December 2009; Laura Hart, June 2021

Conscious editing by Nancy Kaiser, August 2022: abstract, subject headings, biographical note, scope content note, 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.

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.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the John Edwin Fripp Papers #869, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu