Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the James Henry Hammond Letters #305-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Eve Benton of South Carolina prior to 1940.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Lisa Tolbert, June 1990

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Columbia (S.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Cotton growing--South Carolina.
• Governors--South Carolina--Elections.
• Hammond, Catherine E. Fitzsimons, 1814-1890.
• Hammond, James Henry, 1807-1864.
• House furnishings--History--19th century.
• Phyfe, Duncan, 1768-1854.
• Plantation life--South Carolina.
• Plantations--South Carolina.
• Silver Bluff (S.C.)
• Slavery--South Carolina.
• South Carolina--Politics and government--1775-1865.

• James Henry Hammond Papers, Library of Congress and James Henry Hammond Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina

Twelve letters, all from Hammond to his wife, Catherine E. FitzSimons Hammond.

The earliest letter, written in 1831, describes family tensions over Hammond's recent marriage and a disagreement over his father-in-law's estate. An 1834 letter was written during his campaign for the Senate seat he eventually won. In an 1836 letter Hammond mentions health problems and his desire to give up his Senate seat and go to Europe. Several letters, written in 1840, document Hammond's disgust with party politics during the South Carolina governor's election, which he lost. Hammond also spent time in New York that same year buying household furnishings, which he described in detail. These letters include a critique of the New York furniture maker Duncan Phyfe, whose designs Hammond declared overpriced and "behind the times." Letters dated 1842 to 1845 deal chiefly with plantation matters.