PETER WILSON HAIRSTON PAPERS, #299, 1773-1965
Correspondence, financial and legal papers, plantation ledgers, and miscellaneous items
documenting the business and personal affairs of the Hairston family of southwestern Virginia
and north central North Carolina. Plantations documented include Sauratown Hill in Stokes
County and Cooleemee Hill in Davie County, North Carolina, and other plantations in Surry and
Davidson Counties, North Carolina; Henry and Patrick Counties, Virginia; and in Columbus,
Mississippi. Papers include letters that discuss the buying and selling of North Carolina
slaves (1787-1828); the health of slaves on Virginia plantations (1833-1834, 1837-1840);
slave unrest in Virginia (1861-1863); and a tribute written by an African-American minister
to Fanny Hairston upon her death (1937). The collection also contains slave bills of sale
(1815, 1821-1826); lists of tobacco and corn picked by slaves in North Carolina (1842-1861);
a letter to the Charlotte Observer from an African-American preacher expressing his views on
servant-employee relations, organized labor, and the training of domestic workers (1930s); a
typed copy of an oral interview of William T. Hairston, great-grandson of Hairston slaves
(1865); slave registers and births (1815-1836; 1833-1850;
1850-1868; 1844-1864); copies of letters and legal documents concerning court battles over
Robert Hairston's estate, which he attempted to leave to a slave child he fathered
(1844-1864); and ledgers kept by plantation managers with freedmen (1866-1883).