Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#383-z
JAMES A. JOHNSTON PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: James A. Johnston (b. 1809), was a merchant, planter,
and slaveholder of Iredell County, N.C. In 1864, he served
as a steward in a Confederate Army field hospital in
Petersburg, Va.
The three items in this collection are an 1845 bill of
sale for Johnston's purchase of a 23-year-old black slave
named Henry for $450 from David Holdsclaw of Iredell
County, N.C.; an 1864 letter from Johnston in Petersburg,
Va., where he was serving as a hospital steward, to his
uncle about Johnston's activities; and a list of birth and
death records, presumably for black slaves, with entries
ranging from 1825 to 1867.
Online Catalog Terms:
Confederate States of America. Army--Medical care.
Holdsclaw, David, fl. 1845.
Hospitals, Military--Confederate States of America.
Johnston, James A. (b. 1809)
Petersburg (Va.)--History --Civil War, 1861-1865.
Slave bills of sale.
Slave records--North Carolina.
Slavery--North Carolina.
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Hospitals.
Size: 3 items.
Provenance: Received from Mrs. F.O. Johnston of Davidson, N.C., in
July 1932.
Access: No restrictions.
Processing Note: This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship
of a grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington,
D.C., 1990-1992.
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their
descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.