CAMERON FAMILY PAPERS, #133, 1757-1978
The Cameron family of Orange and Durham Counties and Raleigh, North Carolina, was among the
state's largest landowners and slaveholders during the antebellum period. Correspondence
regards attitudes toward slavery; plantation management (1830s); runaway slaves (1847); a former slave's
attempts to buy her children (1859); and the aftermath of
emancipation, including the looting of Fairntosh Plantation by former slaves. Additional
materials include a narrative about a test case brought by an African- American servant
(1865); slave lists and a slave ledger which provide information
on the hiring and expenses of slaves, transfer of slaves, contracts to sell slaves, recording
birth and deaths and slaves' occupations; student essays on slavery (1796-1805); an undated essay "A Peep into the Old Dominion" discussing
problems of free labor; and an account book recording accounts for African Americans (1866). The collection also includes letters written to and from a former
Cameron family slave living in Liberia (1840s)
and letters from a slave in Alabama reporting on plantation business to the Camerons.
Microfilm available.
