PETTIGREW FAMILY PAPERS, #592, 1685, 1776-1939
The collection contains correspondence, personal, professional, legal and financial papers
and writings of four generations of the Pettigrew family, their relatives and associates. The
Pettigrew family were planters in Washington and Tyrell Counties, North Carolina, and their
papers contain information on various aspects of slavery and the transition to free labor
after the Civil War. The correspondence series contains information on the slave trade (late
1700s and mid-1800s), attitudes towards the institution (1802-1804), views on using slaves as
overseers (1849), rebellious behavior of slaves (1852), sale of
slaves (1803), slaves during the Civil War (1861-1865), and letters written on behalf of
slaves (1850). There are also legal and financial papers concerning the purchase of slaves,
slave lists and accounts with slaves, and writings by slaves and on the topic of the slave
trade. Partial microfilm available.