PETER EVANS SMITH PAPERS, #677, 1738-1944
Personal and business papers of Smith of Halifax County, North Carolina, and of his
relatives. The collection documents slaves, tenant farmers, and laborers. Antebellum
correspondence mention runaway slaves, the hiring of slaves (1822-1849), and information on
the skills of particular slaves. The collection also contains slave lists, slave bills of
sale, accounts for the hire of slaves, slave medical bills, and deeds of gift transferring
ownership of slaves (1739-1865); accounts for items purchased for slaves (1865); labor contracts for freedmen (1866-1868); account books with information on
slave hiring (1823-1831); and slave lists (1858-1866). Included is a document presumably
recording payment to a female slave "healer" for her medical services (1830) and two
photographs of African Americans in Edwards Ferry, 1888, and at the Jamestown Exposition.
