]
]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Expand/collapse
Collection Overview
| Size | 1.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 200 items) |
| Abstract | Chiefly financial records of John W. Leak (1816-1876), a white plantation owner and enslaver in Rockingham, N.C., and Cheraw, Chesterfield District, S.C., and family papers, 1877-1897, of his daughter Fannie Leak Wall and son-in-law Henry Clay Wall (1841-1899). Materials include plantation journals and account books that document the labor, skills, and knowledge of enslaved people, some of whom are identified by name, and occasionally their health and acts of resistance; business correspondence with commission merchants; personal accounts; Henry Clay Wall's autograph book, 1861, kept while he was a student at the University of North Carolina and his diary, 1862, in Virginia while serving in the 23rd North Carolina Regiment, C.S.A., and in 1869; and Fannie Leak Wall's diary, 1869-1870; and scrapbooks. Also included are a record of the Rockingham Sabbath School, 1833-1847, and financial records, 1861-1864, for the Richmond County (N.C.) Relief Committee for the Families of Volunteers. |
| Creator | Leak (Family : Rockingham, N.C.)
Wall (Family : Rockingham, N.C.) |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
Expand/collapse
Information For Users
Expand/collapse
Processing Information
This collection contains materials that document people claimed as property and reflect the violence and dehumanization of slavery in the U.S. South. Learn more here about how we are revising finding aid descriptions for these materials at Wilson Special Collections Library.
Processed by: Suzanne Ruffing, September 1996
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, December 2009; Amelia W. Holmes, April 2016
Conscious Editing by: Nancy Kaiser, February 2024 (Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, scope and content note, and contents list). Earlier versions of the finding aid are available upon request.
In February 2024, archivists reviewed this collection to uncover more information about the lives of enslaved and free people of color. Containers that include materials related to enslaved and free people of color during the antebellum period, the institution of slavery, or freed people after the Civil War are indicated as "Records of enslavement and free people of color" or "Records of Reconstruction." Researchers are advised that the collection may include more documentation of slavery, free people of color, and Reconstruction than has been identified in this finding aid.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
We welcome your questions and comments at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
Back to Top
Expand/collapse
Subject Headings
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.
Expand/collapse
Biographical Information
John W. Leak (1816-1876) was a white plantation owner and enslaver in Rockingham County, N.C., and in Cheraw, Chesterfield, S.C. The federal census of 1840 locates John W. Leak in Rockingham, N.C.; in 1850 he was in Chesterfield, S.C., and by 1860 he was back in Rockingham. Leak was also an agent for the Richmond County (N.C.) Relief Committee for the Families of Volunteers.
John W. Leak was married to Ann Cole Leak, who served as administrator of his estate after he died. While living in Cheraw, S.C., they had 2 daughters, Virginia Wall Leak (b. 1845) and Mary Francis "Fannie" Leak (1847-1921). In 1874 Fannie married Henry Clay Wall, who served in the Pee Dee Guards, Company D, 23rd North Carolina Regiment, C.S.A.
There are a number of people who are identified by first name only in this collection and it is likely that before Emancipation they were enslaved by John W. Leak, or they were trafficked to him by other enslavers through the hiring out of their labor, skills, and knowledge; or after the American Civil War they were freed people working as agricultural laborers or sharecroppers. There are a few individuals whose first and last names are given, but contextual information concerning their labor suggests that they too were enslaved or freed people. The individuals mentioned include:
Expand/collapse
Scope and Content
Chiefly financial records of John W. Leak (1816-1876), a white plantation owner and enslaver in Rockingham, N.C., and Cheraw, Chesterfield District, S.C., and family papers, 1877-1897, of his daughter Fannie Leak Wall and son-in-law Henry Clay Wall (1841-1899). Materials include plantation journals and account books that document the labor, skills, and knowledge of enslaved people, some of whom are identified by name, and occasionally their health and acts of resistance; business correspondence with commission merchants; personal accounts; Henry Clay Wall's autograph book, 1861, kept while he was a student at the University of North Carolina and his diary, 1862, in Virginia while serving in the 23rd North Carolina Regiment, C.S.A., and in 1869; and Fannie Leak Wall's diary, 1869-1870; and scrapbooks. Also included are a record of the Rockingham Sabbath School, 1833-1847, and financial records, 1861-1864, for the Richmond County (N.C.) Relief Committee for the Families of Volunteers.
Back to Top
Expand/collapse
Series Quick Links
Expand/collapse
Series 1. Business Papers and Related Material, 1785-1897 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological.
Chiefly bills, accounts, and scattered business letters with commission merchants and others of John Wall Leak (1816-1876). Early papers consist of deeds and indentures from North and South Carolina, 1785-1791. There is a group of papers, 1861-1863, pertaining to the Richmond County Relief Committee for the Families of Volunteers for which John W. Leak was treasurer. These papers consist of reports to the Central Committee from District committees, general records and accounts, individual applications and receipts for aid, and statements of individual allowances. There are also papers of Ann C. Leak as administrator of her husband's estate, 1877-1878, and a copy of his will, 1876. Leak's daughter, Fannie (1847-1921) married Henry Clay Wall (1841-1899), and there is scattered family papers from them.
| Folder 1 |
Business papers and related material, 1785-1842Fragments of early deeds and indentures, North Carolina and South Carolina. Scattered letters to Stephen Wall, Richmond County, N.C., from various people in Indiana, Alabama, and Pittsboro, N.C. |
| Folder 2 |
Business papers and related material, 1853-1859Correspondence, bills and accounts of John W. Leak, with commission merchants and others. Also includes letters to Mial Wall. |
| Folder 3 |
Business papers and related material, 1860-1863Miscellaneous business correspondence and accounts of John W. Leak |
| Folder 4 |
Business papers and related material, 1861-1863Records pertaining to the Richmond County Relief Committee for the Families of Volunteers. |
| Folder 5 |
Business papers and related material, 1865-1866Business correspondence and accounts, chiefly concerning cotton. |
| Folder 6 |
Business papers and related material, 1867Includes a letter to Mial Wall. |
| Folder 7 |
Business papers and related material, 1868-1869 |
| Folder 8 |
Business papers and related material, 1870-1897Includes will of John Leak and a few papers of Ann C. Leak as the administrator of her late husband's estate. |
| Folder 9 |
Business papers and related material, Undated |
Expand/collapse
Series 2. Volumes, 1833-1872.
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 10-11
Folder 10Folder 11 |
Folder numbers not used |
| Oversize Volume SV-1486/1 |
Volume S-1: Rockingham Sabbath School records and library records, 1833-184763 pp. |
| Oversize Volume SV-1468/2 |
Volume S-2: Accounts, 1833-1872150 pp. Early accounts of Stephen Wall, the estate of Martha P. Davis, and Henry C. Wall's accounts of general supplies. |
| Folder 12 |
Volume 3: John W. Leak accounts, 1839-1845150 pp. Chiefly a journal of agricultural activities on a plantation in Chesterfield District, S.C., and related expenses. J. W. Bowman, an overseer, seems to have written many of the notes. Nearly every page makes a reference to the labor, skills, and knowledge of unidentified people, "hands," who may have been enslaved by Leak or trafficked to him through hiring out from other enslavers. Included are descriptions of the labor performed (for example, ploughing, hoeing, planting, ditching, hauling, repair work, spreading manure, gathering fodder, cutting wood, and splitting rails), the location of the work, the types of crops (for example, potato, cotton, rye, oats, peas, corn, wheat, and rice), and the weather. Below is a list of pages on which individuals, who likely were enslaved, are mentioned. There are also selected examples of interactions with unidentified enslaved people, but these represent only a small sample. Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 13 |
Folder number not used |
| Oversize Volume SV-1468/4 |
Volume S-4: John W. Leak day book, 1843-1854, 186750 pp. Miscellaneous accounts and farm records. |
| Folder 14 |
Volume 5: John W. Leak accounts, 1854-185624 pp. Records of enslavement:
|
| Folder 15 |
Volume 6: Committee for the Relief of Families of Volunteers in Richmond County, N.C., 1861-186450 pp. John W. Leak served as agent. |
| Folder 16 |
Volume 7: Henry C. Wall diary, 1862, 186963 pp. Henry C. Wall served in the Pee Dee Guards, Company D, 23rd North Carolina Regiment, with miscellaneous notes; notes on Bethel, 1862; and accounts on crop record, 1869. |
| Folder 17 |
Volume 8: John W. Leak account, 1867-1868125 pp. Account book with records of expenses and credits, chiefly related to the plantation. Records of Reconstruction:
|
| Folder 18 |
Volume 9: Henry C. Wall accounts, 1868-1877128 pp. Receipts and disbursements as executor of the estate of Mial Wall. |
| Folder 19 |
Volume 10: Fannie Leak Wall diary, 1869-1870112 pp. |
| Folder 20 |
Volume 11: John W. Leak account book, 187216 pp. |
| Folder 21 |
Volume 12: Account book, Undated6 pp. |
| Folder 22 |
Folder number not used |
| Oversize Volume SV-1468/13 |
Volume S-13: "Grief Book No. 5," 1872-1874119 pp. By Walter F. Leak (b. 1797) with philosophy, poetry, and musings addressed to his daughters, Ann C. Leak, Hannah P. Steel, and Mary C. Scales. |
| Folder 23 |
Volume 14: Poetry scrapbook, 1875134 pp. Ann C. Leak's scrapbook of her father Walter F. Leak's poetry. |
| Folder 24 |
Volume 15: Walter F. Leak, 1877232 pp. Comments and writings addressed to Fannie Leak Wall and her husband, Henry C. Wall, from her grandfather, Walter F. Leak. |
| Folder 25 |
Volume 16: A. C. Leak Scrapbook, 188098 pp. Album and scrapbook containing chiefly poetry from newspapers and magazines. |
Expand/collapse
Series 2A. Volumes, 1833-1877 (Addition of 2016).
Acquisition Information: Accession 102512
Arrangement: Alphabetical by first name.
The Addition of 2016 contains Henry Clay Wall's autograph book, 1861, kept while he was a student at the University of North Carolina; scrapbooks; and account books created by members of the family in the nineteenth century.
| Folder 26 |
Volume 17: Ann Cole Leak scrapbook, 1833-1837"The Young Lady's Remembrancer" published by J.C. Riker in New York, 1833. Contains handwritten poems and color etchings. |
| Folder 27 |
Volume 18: Ann Cole Leak account book, 1876-1877Created while serving as the executrix of her husband John Wall Leak's estate. |
| Folder 28 |
Volume 19: Henry Clay Wall autograph book, 1861Contains signatures and brief biographical details of Henry Clay Wall's professors, Delta Kappa Epsilon brothers, and classmates at the University of North Carolina. Also includes a few handwritten notes in pencil in different handwriting. Autograph book from J. B. Lippincott & Co. in Philadelphia. |
| Folder 29 |
Volume 20: Henry Clay Wall account book and diary, 1868-1871First half used as an account book; second half used as a diary. Both sections cover the same time period. |
| Folder 30 |
Volume 21: Mary Francis "Fannie" Leak scrapbook, 1875Contains newspaper clippings of poems written by others. Some clippings have been torn from their pages or have had sections cut out of them. Also includes several handwritten poems. |
Expand/collapse
Microfilm.
| Reel M-1468/1 |
MicrofilmVolumes 2, 3, 4. |
Expand/collapse
Items Separated