Voices of the Enslaved in Wilson Special Collections Library: Multi-Letter Collections
Letters and Correspondence
The following is a listing of archival collections within Wilson Special Collections Library that contain letters written by enslaved people. They offer a rare glimpse into the lives of individuals who were denied the basic right to express themselves. In some cases, other documents from the collection shed light on the life of the author, but in most cases little is known about the enslaved person themselves.
"Multi-Letter Collections" indicate collections that contain two or more letters written by an enslaved person while "Single-Letter Collections" represent collections that contain just one letter written by an enslaved person. The hyperlinked collection title will take you to the Finding Aid for the collection. Most of these letters have been digitized and are accessible online. Use the links within the description to navigate to a downloadable version of the image.
Collections
A.H. Arrington Papers, 1744-1909
The majority of the papers relate to A.H. Arrington's agricultural and business pursuits in Nash County, N.C., and Montgomery County, Ala. They include many receipts for cotton sales; accounts with merchants; enslaved and freedmen documents, including records of provided provisions, bills of sale and hiring agreements, lists of ages and birthdates of enslaved people, and sharecropping contracts; overseer contracts, and more. The collection includes two letters from Ted Arrington who was enslaved by A. H. Arrington. Ted wrote to Arrington on December 3, 1860 (scans 76 and 77) and December 10, 1860 (scan 74) with updates from the plantation. Both of these letters have been digitized. They can be found in Subseries 1.1: Box 1, Folder 7. On December 3, Ted wrote that he had already written to Arrington twice with no reply. The previous two letters do not appear to be in this collection.
Rice C. Ballard Papers, 1822-1888
Rice Carter Ballard (c. 1800-1860) was an enslaver and trader based in Richmond, Va., who worked in partnership with the large trading firm of Isaac Franklin and John Armfield in the late 1820s and early 1830s. This collection contains letters written by enslaved people. Subseries 1.3 contains three letters. Lucile Tucker wrote on June 25, 1847 about sending a power of attorney to someone who could emancipate her without her going to New Orleans from Georgia to meet Ballard, "for life you know is very uncertain and you might die before I can see you." On 6 May 1853, the pregnant Virginia wrote Ballard from an enslaver's yard in Texas begging for his intervention and help to prevent her sale. A letter of 8 August 1853 from the enslaver, C. M. Rutherford, reports that the enslaved woman Virginia and one of her children had been sold but that her oldest child had not. On October 22, 1854, Delia wrote (presumably to Ballard, although the recipient is not named) asking him to buy her husband. All three of these letters have been digitized.
June 25, 1847: Box 7, Folder 113 (scans 9-11)
May 6, 1853: Box 12, Folder 191 (scans 1-3)
October 22, 1854: Box 14, Folder 217 (scan 1)
DeRosset Family Papers, 1671-1940
The collection includes DeRosset family papers, chiefly 1821-1877, relating to family life and social, religious, political, and military activities of DeRossets. Other correspondence relates to the family rice plantation in Brunswick County, N.C.; and the people they enslaved in North Carolina and South Carolina. Included are some letters written by enslaved people, some of which describe the yellow fever epidemic of 1862. Reconstruction era letters discuss activities of formerly enslaved people. Of note is a letter dated March 25, 1863 from Jimmy, an enslaved man hired out to work in an office, in which he reported that he had been granted permission to marry and asked for money so that he might get something to wear at the wedding. Folder 58 includes a letter, August 1863, from Daniel B. Hanes, an enslaved person, who reported on the health of other enslaved people, expressed gratitude for being removed from an unsatisfactory work arrangement, and asked how he would go about sending money.
March 25, 1863: Folder 56 (scans 79-81)
August 1863: Folder 58
Brownrigg Family Papers, 1736-1986
The collection includes correspondence and other papers, mainly 1771-1861, of the Brownrigg family of Chowan County, N.C., and Lowndes County, Miss. Series 2 contains many financial and legal materials concerning the buying and selling of enslaved people. Within the correspondence of Series 1 there is a 4-page letter dated November 4, 1835 (scans 55-58) in which several enslaved individuals are writing back and forth to each other. There is also a letter written by Sarah Brownrigg Sparkman to her sister Mary Brownrigg Blackstock dated January 4, 1836 (scans 5-8) that conveys messages from enslaved individuals. These letters can be found in Box 1, Folders 3 and 4 respectively.
Elliott and Gonzales Family Papers, 1701-1898
This collection documents the lives of members of the Elliott and Gonzales families of Beaufort and Colleton Districts in South Carolina, as well as the people they enslaved. Subseries 1.5 contains two letters written by enslaved individuals. On November 11, 1848, Ben Stevens Eliot wrote to his enslaver William Elliot updating him about the status of the plantation. On October 22, 1849, Isaac Stephen also wrote to Elliot reporting news about crops and the family.
November 11, 1848: Folder 35 (scan 38)
October 22, 1849: Folder 37: (scans 20-21)
Ralph Gorrell Papers, 1797-1884
Ralph Gorrell was a lawyer, businessman, and Whig state legislator from Guilford County, N.C. The papers include family correspondence and scattered letters from prominent North Carolinians on public affairs. While most of the collection is concerned with legal cases and legal business, Series 1, folder 41a includes two letters written by men who were enslaved by Gorrell. On October 30, 1864, (scans 42 and 43) Bobb Gorell wrote to his enslaver Ralph Gorrell that he had arrived at Wilmington and asked him to pass along news to his wife. On December 4, 1864, (scans 45 and 46) an unidentified enslaved man wrote to Gorrell asking him among other things to send news to his wife to take care of his children.
John S. Henderson Papers, 1755-1945, 1962
The collection includes letters, financial and legal papers, and other items of John S. Henderson, member of the North Carolina General Assembly, and United States Congressman. The collection also documents members of the Henderson and related families. There are items relating to slavery, including lists of the enslaved people hired out, bills of sale, and at least four letters written by enslaved people. Subseries 1.1 includes letters from enslaved man Anderson Henderson, enslaved by Archibald Henderson, who was apparently hired out to a Mr. Wilkins in Wilmington. There is also a letter from an enslaved woman named Isabella to Mrs. Archibald Henderson concerning her unhappiness at being hired out to a new enslaver (see Undated Letters Before 1866 in Folder 39a, which is not digitized).
January 26, 1849: Folder 17 (scans 104-105)
June 14, 1857: Folder 23 (scans 67-68)
March 9, 1865: Folder 37 (scans 18-19)
The collection includes correspondence and financial, legal, and other papers of Aaron Neal, his siblings, in-laws, and children, and other members of the Neal and related Fox and Timberlake families. Most of the correspondence is from the antebellum era and consists primarily of letters from family members in the Old Southwest that describe to relatives in North Carolina the everyday problems associated with moving west, buying land and enslaved individuals, and establishing profitable cotton plantations. In Series 1, there are two letters written by enslaved people. A letter from Sim Neal dated September 2, 1827, (scans 22 and 23) describes him purchasing a tract of land. On June 22, 1834, (scans 30 and 31) Foxes Penny wrote to her former enslaver, Elizabeth Neal, about her new home in Mississippi.
Nicholas Washington Woodfin Papers, 1795-1919, 1950
The papers include photocopies of deeds, legal papers, very scattered family and political correspondence, clippings, and speeches on agriculture, and other items of Buncombe County, N.C., lawyer and legislator Nicholas Washington Woodfin, his wife Eliza G. McDowell Woodfin, and other family members, chiefly 1840s-1870s. The collection includes three letters from people who were either currently or previously enslaved who had gone to California with members of the family to work in the gold fields. See Series 2, Box 2, Folder 4.
April 25, 1853: Folder 4 (scans 1-2)
July 4, 1854: Folder 4 (scans 6-8)
May 15, 1855: Folder 4 (scans 3-5)
The collection is chiefly composed of letters to Jane Gurley of Windsor, N.C., from friends and relatives in La Grange, Tenn., and Louisburg, N.C., concerning family, church, and community affairs. Also included are two letters written by an enslaved woman Matild Gurley (or Turner) from Brownsville, Tenn., who had formerly lived in Windsor, giving news of her relatives and inquiring about people in Bertie County, N.C. See Folder 1, letters dated September 8, 1830 (scans 12-15) and September 9, 1836 (scans 16-18).
The Hayes collection consists of correspondence, diaries, financial and legal materials that reflect the varied interests and activities of Johnston and Wood family members at Hayes Plantation, Edenton, N.C., as well as Caledonia in Halifax County, Poplar Plains in Pasquotank County, and other plantations. There is a significant (almost 40 letters) amount of correspondence written by enslaved people in the Johnston Family Series of this collection. Many of these letters were written by an enslaved man named Peter, who acted as an overseer's assistant, to James Johnston communicating about the status of crops and other plantation matters. Several letters are also written by Aaron Henderson, another man enslaved by the Johnston family. Note that in addition to these letters, there is a wealth of information documenting the institution of slavery, and in particular, the lives of those who were enslaved by the Johnston and Wood families. Only some of the correspondence from the collection has been digitized - for questions email wilsonlibrary@unc.edu. See Subseries 1.1.3. Letters from enslaved men Peter, Aaron, and George to Johnston can be found in folders 217, 533, 535-542, 545, 551, 556-557, 606-607, 628, 630, 632-633.
John Parkhill Papers, 1813-1891
The collection includes Business papers and family correspondence of John Parkhill, a native of Ireland who moved from Richmond, Va., to Leon County, Fla., in the 1820s and worked as a postmaster at Tuscawilla and a banker in Tallahassee. Included are ten letters from James Page, a man who was enslaved by the Parkhill family, written after he was freed, in years 1859-1875. All of these letters have been digitized. See folders 8, 9, and 10.
August 22, 1859: Folder 8 (scans 83-86)
July 15, 1859: Folder 8 (scans 87-89)
January 19, 1866: Folder 9 (scan 75)
February 17, 1866: Folder 9 (scan 76)
March 28, 1866: Folder 9 (scan 77)
March 18, 1867: Folder 9 (scans 78-79)
November 18,1868: Folder 9 (scans 80-81)
October 14, 1870: Folder 10 (scans 8-9)
June 13, 1871: Folder 10 (scans 10-11)
April 18, 1875: Folder 10 (scans 12-13)
Pettigrew Family Papers, 1776-1926
The collection includes business and personal correspondence reflecting the varied interests and activities of Pettigrew family members of Washington County, N.C., and Tyrrell County, N.C. The Pettigrew family owned three plantations and enslaved hundreds of people. The collection includes more than forty letters written by two enslaved overseers Moses and Henry who frequently updated William S. Pettigrew about crops, family members, and other happenings on the plantation while he was visiting Virginia. All of these letters have been digitized. See Series 1.8, Folders 193-195; 201-209; 213-217. The collection also includes several letters that appear to be dictated by enslaved people, but written by members of the Pettigrew family. See Series 1.7. Other writings include poems and acrostics by enslaved poet George Moses Horton. Note that the collection in general documents many aspects of slavery such as providing clothing and food, treatment of enslaved people, runaway attempts, trading, and enslaved people working as tenement farmers during Reconstruction. The following is a sampling of letters written by enslaved people you may find in this collection; it is not comprehensive.
August 14, 1856: Folder 194 (scan 27)
January 2, 1858: Folder 208 (scans 9-10)
1858: Folder 213 (scans 1-11)
Hamilton Brown Papers, 1752-1907
The collection includes extensive and varied business and personal papers of John Brown, his son Hamilton Brown of Wilkesboro, N.C., and members of related families in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. Other papers include several letters from enslaved people, 1830s-1840s, and news about runaways. Of particular interest is a series of letters, 1835-1839, from Indiana residents responding to runaway notices published by Hamilton. These correspondents sent detailed instructions about how they would assist Hamilton in pursuing runaway people, whom they believed to be working as freemen in nearby communities. Letters show that Hamilton enslaved many and then hired them out in towns far from Wilkesboro. Several of these enslaved wrote letters during the 1830s and 1840s to negotiate terms of hire. See, for example, the letter dated 20 December 1832, requesting permission to open a blacksmith shop in Virginia.
January 15, 1832: Folder 53 (scan 7)
December 20, 1832: Folder 53 (scan 40)
Examples of Letters
Letter written by Bobb Gorrell in the Ralph Gorrell Papers, October 1864
