LibGuides: Civil War Resources in Duke's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library: African Americans and slavery

Manuscript collections

American Slavery Documents Collection, 1757-1924
Collection contains approximately 600 items documenting the sales, escapes, and emancipations of slaves from colonial times through the Civil War, the civil rights era from 1950-1970, and to a lesser extent, the period in between the 1870s and the 1950s.
Archibald H. Boyd papers, 1841-1897
Includes letters of Samuel R. Browning, a Louisiana slave trader, commenting on the health of various slaves and on the condition of the slave market, the effect of the cholera epidemics on the market, and accounts of various transactions.
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Businessman, of Lenox Castle, Rockingham County, N.C. Personal and business correspondence of Boyd and his son, James E. Boyd, attorney and political leader. Includes Civil War letters commenting on living conditions, military activities, and relating to the region around Richmond and Petersburg, Va.
Cronly Family papers, 1806-1944
Correspondence, financial records, legal and other papers of the Cronly family. Subjects include auctions and auctioneering, Wilmington social life, Civil War experiences, the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railway Company, railroad bonds issued in North Carolina during Reconstruction, an earthquake that struck the Carolinas in 1886, the Democratic Party and politics in North Carolina, and blacks during Reconstruction.
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The Cronly family of Wilmington, N.C. includes Michael Cronly, Sr., auctioneer and real estate broker, and his wife, Margaret McLaurin Cronly as well as their nine children.
Edward L. Hartz papers, 1861-1867
Primarily Civil War letters discussing Civil War military activity in Texas, 1861; relating to an expedition to return dissatisfied Afro-Americans from Haiti to the United States, 1864; concerning supply problems and railroad transportation in support of Sherman's army, 1864; and reflecting Hart's successful attempt to be reinstated in the army following his discharge in 1864 for drunkenness.
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U.S. Army officer, from Pottsville (Schuylkill Co.), Pa.
Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas papers, 1848-1889
Other subjects discussed include black religion; the institution of slavery and especially the relations between white men and slave women; Civil War military activities, especially concerning Jefferson Thomas' career; destruction of property by Union troops; social conditions after the war; spiritualism; labor and servant problems, financial losses and poverty; school teaching; and the earthquake of 1886.
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Wife of Jefferson Thomas, Confederate officer and Georgia planter. The entries describe in detail Mrs. Thomas' reading; studies at Macon Female College (now called Wesleyan College) in Macon, Ga.; conversion to methodism; clothing and dress styles; gossip and social life; shopping and prices; church services; courtship by and marriage to Jefferson Thomas; and plantation life in Burke and Columbia counties.
George Y. Bradley papers, 1845-1868
Merchant, of Powhatan County, Va. Correspondence concerning the poverty and unsettled conditions in Virginia during 1867-1868, and difficulties with black servants in 1868.
John Ramsay account books, 1834-1885
Five account books and ledgers for Ramsay's plantation and general store; three of the volumes have two parts. There are entries for wages, goods, and services; debts and financial assets; hiring of slaves, former slaves, and white laborers; corn and cotton production; and cotton sales. Ramsay also served as executor for William R. Tyner's estate.
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Plantation and general store owner in Seaboard (Northampton Co.), N.C. The volumes include records for Tyner's business in Smith Church and for the practice of Dr. Junius Napoleon Ramsay, a relative who served as the area's physician. Other material in the collection (35 items) comprises miscellaneous papers filed within the volumes, including page fragments; a work contract (June 12, 1865) for a former slave working as one of Ramsay's task leaders; a NORFOLK PRICES CURRENT (Sept. 25, 1868); papers relating to commission merchants; and an undated miscellaneous clipping.
Kate D. Foster diary, 1863-1872
The majority of the entries date to the latter half of 1863 and concern the Civil War and Miss Foster's opinions about the righteousness of the Southern cause and the effect of the war on her home and on the local slaves. Postwar entries concern personal matters. The diary's inside covers are pasted with clippings of pro-Southern patriotic poetry.
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Daughter of James Foster, a plantation owner from Madison Parish, La.; resident of Adams County, Miss.
Samuel Fuqua account book, 1835-1866
Account book of Fuqua, agent for Richard Gaines. The volume contains records of household expenses, labor, settlement of estates, etc.; and a written agreement between a Virginia planter and his slaves regarding their continued service after emancipation.
William T. Bain papers, 1850-1865
Family letters of Bain, his wife, and children to his daughter, Mollie Bain Bitting of Germantown, North Carolina. Topics include Bain's Masonic interests, difficulties with slaves, the "Black Republicanism" of the North, a speech by Stephen A. Douglas (1860), hopes for a strong Confederacy, and meetings of the legislature.