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 William Polk Papers #604-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

Gift of Eloise Burrows of LeCompte, Rapides Parish, La., in March 1936.

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.

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.

• Estates (Law)--Georgia.
• Lamar, Jefferson J., d. 1840.
• Macon (Ga.)--History.
• Plantations--Louisiana.
• Polk, William, 1821-1898.
• Slavery--Louisiana.

William Polk (1821-1898), a sugar planter of Ashton Plantation near Alexandria in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, was the son of Thomas G. Polk (1791-1869) and Mary Eloise Trotter Polk. He was married in 1857 to Rebecca Eveline Lamar (fl. 1840-1858) of Macon, Georgia, daughter of Jefferson J. Lamar (d. 1840) of Stewart County, Georgia. William and Rebecca Lamar Polk had three children: Alice; William, Jr.; and Mary Eloise.

Business and legal papers of William Polk include a complaint of William Polk (for his wife, Rebecca Eveline Lamar Polk) and Lucius Mirabeau Lamar (fl. 1840-1858) against Thomas R. Lamar (fl. 1840-1858) and Abner C. McGehee (fl. 1840-1858), executors of Jefferson J. Lamar of Stewart County, Georgia, with other papers relating to Lamar's estate, which include Lamar's will, a marriage agreement between William Polk and Rebecca Eveline Lamar, an appraisement of Jefferson J. Lamar's slaves, perishable property, notes, and real estate; and McGehee's answer to the complaint. Undated accounts and lists probably connected with the settlement of Lamar's estate are filed in Folder 2.

Other business papers of William Polk include slave bills of sale, two letters about slave purchases, and a letter from Kenneth Rayner in Memphis about Tennessee land which had belonged to Thomas G. Polk.