Timothy D. Pyatt, Editor
University Press of Virginia
© 1996 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
Conditions of Use
North
Carolina State Archives
109 East Jones Street
Raleigh NC 27601-2807
Phone: (919) 733-3952
Fax: (919) 733-1354
Hours: Tuesday-Friday 8:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Saturday 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Chapter and "Man of the Year" scrapbooks, 1972-1990.
Organized in Raleigh on 5 May 1875 as a "Lodge of Emergency." Records consist of three volumes of minutes from 1875 to 1900. Rough membership and financial records are found in the back of the three volumes.
Established in 1952 under the sponsorship of the Raleigh Council of United Church Women, the Board served as a ladies auxiliary to the St Agnes Hospital of Raleigh. St. Agnes was established in 1896 as a general hospital for Negroes. The records consist of minutes, committee reports, correspondence, and a membership list.
Good Samaritan Hospital was organized in 1889 under the auspices of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Charlotte. It was the first hospital in the United States built and operated exclusively for blacks. Records consist of minutes, annual reports, and other related materials.
Microfilm collection of papers of Spaulding, a Durham businessman and president of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, including several speeches and articles (1943, 1966-1971) by Spaulding on insurance, management, and civil rights. Also includes materials for seminars on minority directors.
Collection of original and photocopies documents relating to slavery in North Carolina. Includes deeds of gift and bills of sale for slaves, permission for slaves to marry, court cases relating to murder trials and reimbursement of owners for executed slaves, documents relating to the insurrection conspiracy in Bertie County (1802), letters and petitions concerning the emancipation of individual slaves, and documents relating to free blacks wanting to reside in North Carolina.
Family papers of Bell, including a Nash County certificate that Mrs. Elizabeth Boon of Halifax County was a free Negro (1856); monthly attendance reports (1922-1923) by Mrs. Almyra Boone Pittman, principal of a Negro School in Enfield; her membership card in the North Carolina Negro Teachers Association (1940); and a letter of recommendation from the superintendent of the Halifax County Schools (1937) for builder Carey Pittman.
Papers of Dr. Pickel, chemistry professor at Leonard Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy, Shaw University, and feed chemist for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. Papers include seventeen roll books, 1896-1913, with student information, course outlines, lists of experiments, and comments.
Papers of Dr. Hunter, Episcopal minister and principal of St. Augustine's School for Negroes in Raleigh (later St. Augustine's College). Consists largely of Dr. and Mrs. Hunter's diaries.
Papers of Harris, a free black from Granville County and Republican legislator. Papers include an affidavit proving Harris to be a free black; his appointment as a recruiting officer in Indiana to raise black troops during the Civil War; materials relating to the Union League; his appointment to solicit for the New England Freedmen's Aid Society; his appointment as a Raleigh city commissioner; notification of his election as a presidential elector (1872); and broadsides and endorsements of Harris as a candidate for Congress and as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions.
Papers of Boon, a free black carpenter of Franklin County, including letters of reference, receipts, deeds, notes, court summons, agreements, and accounts which show something of the difficulties of the life of a free black.
Winston-Salem State University was originally established as the Slater Industrial Academy in Winston-Salem in September 1892. It was later acquired by the state (1905) and the name changed to Winston-Salem Teachers College (1925). Records include minutes of the Slater Industrial Academy and Winston-Salem Teachers College Board of Trustees (1899-1928) and of the Slater Hospital Board of Managers (1899-1919).
The Council was established on 13 January 1963 by Governor Terry Sanford as the Good Neighbor Council to encourage employment of qualified people without regard to race and to urge youth to become better trained and qualified for employment. Almost immediately, however, the council became an instrument for resolving the racial tension that arose because of the civil rights and integration movements. The Council's name was changed to the Human Relations Commission in June 1971, and it became the Human Relations Council during 1972-1973. Records include speeches, plans for Brotherhood Week and Race Relations Sunday; correspondence with colleges concerning minority enrollment; materials on cases of alleged discrimination; questionnaires on employment practices of state agencies; information on state-wide meetings of the Good Neighbor Council; correspondence with the counties on racial incidents; and materials relating to specially funded EEOC and law-and-order projects.
About 1925, the Department of Public Welfare established a State Division of Negro Welfare. The division worked principally with the counties in establishing welfare programs for black recipients. Included are records of black prison inmates, correspondence on the employment of blacks in welfare work, correspondence with black juvenile correctional institutions, public welfare institutes and meetings, correspondence with colleges concerning the training of black social workers, and minutes of the Advisory Committee on Training and Correction.
The Division of Negro Education began as the office of the Associate Supervisor of Rural Elementary Schools with the responsibility for promoting Negro education. Records include correspondence of the director (1907-1960); correspondence of the Division of Cooperation in Education and Rare relations (1934-1946); articles and speeches of N. C. Newbold, long-time director of the Division (1922-1948)' subject material concerning accreditation, Negro normal schools and colleges, Jeanes Fund and reports, Rosenwald Fund, General Education and Slater Fund appropriations, and reports; and high school principals' annual reports (1922-1950).
Virtually every county existing in 1860 has a body of documents referred to by the State Archives as "Slave Papers." These papers may include civil and criminal actions papers relating to slaves, bills of sale for slaves, petitions to sell slaves, bonds for slaves permitted to carry arms, petitions for emancipation and emancipation bonds, patrol records, depositions and other records concerning runaway slaves, permits for slaves to works, inquests into the death of slaves, etc. These records are designated for some counties as records of slaves and free persons of color and containing records dating through the Reconstruction period.
In the period following the adoption of the state constitution of 1868, several North Carolina counties maintained marriage records that distinguished between blacks and whites. These records may take the form of marriage licenses, marriage registers (or record of marriages), and indexes to marriages. The inclusive dates vary from county to county, but only in isolated instances do such records document the marriages of blacks prior to 1868. The records generally show the name of the bride and groom, date of marriage, and person performing the marriage. The State Archives primarily has microfilm copies with originals retained by the respective counties.
Prior to 1865, slaves in North Carolina were not legally permitted to marry, although many lived together as husband and wife. Following the end of the Civil War, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted legislation (10 March 1866) that ordered former slaves to have their marriages recorded. Originally the marriages was to be registered before 1 September 1866, but in 1867 that deadline was extended to 1 January 1868. Information found in the records include the names of the man and woman, length of time they had lived together prior to 1866, and the name of person before whom the statement was made. Additional information such as names and number of children, names of former owners, and date of cohabitation can occasionally be found.
Established in Oxford (1883) as the Colored Orphanage of North Carolina with a board of directors comprised of ministers from the various black denominations in the state. The records consist of microfilm copies of minutes (1932-1970) and histories (1883-1941).
Other African-American historical materials held by the State Archives include the films of H. Lee Waters (1936-1942), some of which show African Americans and their communities in 12 North Carolina cities (Albemarle, Angier, Burlington, Chapel Hill, Concord, Durham, Hillsborough, Lumberton, Monroe, Rockingham, Wadesboro, and Wake Forest). Various work prints and negatives of the motion picture series produced by the North Carolina Film Board in the mid-1960s under the title "Minority Report," which presented the reason behind racial protest in North Carolina. Videotape copy of the Wilmington Ten at Central Prison during a news conference held on 24 January 1978. Interview with Aunt Harriet Parker, born a slave, ca. 1858. "Bull City Blues," a study of the black business community that existed in Durham from the 1920s to the 1940s.
