WILLIAM D. VALENTINE DIARY, #2148, 1837-1855
The personal diary of Valentine, a lawyer practicing in the courts of a four-county area of
northeastern North Carolina (Hertford, Bertie, Gates, and Northampton Counties). The 15
volumes contain discussion of rape charges brought against a black man by a white woman and
the man's subsequent hanging (1838); abolition (1840, 1849, 1850);
the shooting of a runaway slave (1845); a case of miscegenation
which appeared in the Gates County Court (1846); slavery, slaves,
and free blacks within various communities in eastern North Carolina (1850-1853); a prayer
meeting of blacks (1851); the legal rights and community status of free blacks (1853); and the impact a large number of free black residents had upon
the community of Winston (1853).
