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 Ravenel Family Papers #1022, 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 Mr. and Mrs. Samuel F. Ravenel of Greensboro, North Carolina, in October 1945, and Ann Ravenel Saslow of Greensboro, North Carolina, in May 1983.

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: Linda Griggs, November 1983; Jill Snider, July 1990

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, November 2009

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.

• Berkeley District (S.C.)--History.
• Commission merchants--South Carolina.
• Cotton--Marketing.
• DuBose, Edwin, fl. 1859.
• DuBose, Theodore Samuel, b. 1785.
• Eady, Jonathan, fl. 1850.
• Estates (Law)--South Carolina.
• Fairfield District (S.C.)--History.
• Families--South Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Lawyers--South Carolina--History--19th century.
• Livestock--South Carolina.
• Plantation life--South Carolina.
• Plantations--South Carolina.
• Ravenel, Abigail, fl. 1840.
• Ravenel, Ellen M. DuBose, fl. 1850.
• Ravenel, Henry William, 1814-1887.
• Ravenel, Henry, 1790-1867.
• Ravenel, William Francis, b. 1828.
• Simons, Frederick, fl. 1880.
• Slave bills of sale--South Carolina.
• Slave records--South Carolina.
• Slavery--South Carolina.
• Waring, Rebecca H., fl. 1880.

• Several collections at the South Carolina Historical Society and at the South Caroliniana Collection, University of South Carolina.

William Francis Ravenel, to whom the majority of the papers in this collection belonged, was born in 1828, the son of Henry Ravenel (1790-1867) and Elizabeth Catherine Porcher (1798-1846). Ravenel worked as a lawyer, handling the estates of many of his relatives, and operated the Woodlawn Plantation located in the Berkeley District of South Carolina. Included in the collection are the estate papers of his father, a prominent planter and physician, and those of his great aunt, Abigail Ravenel. A few letters written by noted botanist Henry W. Ravenel, William's half brother, also appear. Rene Ravenel (1826-1875), another of William's half brothers, acted as executor of the estate of Jonathan Eady, and his papers on this estate, along with a few of his business papers, appear here.

William Ravenel was of Huguenot descent, and he married Ellen M. DuBose, a descendant of another prominent South Carolina Huguenot family, around 1857. Ellen's brother, Theodore Samuel Marion DuBose, was a prosperous planter in the 1840s and 1850s. Educated at Yale University, he returned to South Carolina in the mid 1830s to run Farmington Plantation, and later Roseland Plantation outside Winnsboro in Fairfield District. His son, William Porcher DuBose, became an influential Episcopal theologian in the latter part of the century. Ellen and Theodore DuBose account for much of the personal correspondence in the collection. The estate papers of their brother, Edwin, and of their father, Samuel DuBose (b. 1785), are also included.

Series 2 and 3 make up the bulk of the collection. Series 2 contains almost exclusively papers pertaining to the settlement of the estates of the Ravenels and related families. Most of these papers were those of William F. Ravenel, who acted as executor of the estates of Abigail Ravenel, 1852-1869; Dr. Henry Ravenel, 1866-1903; Edwin DuBose, 1851-1886; Frederick Simons of Ophir Plantation, 1885-1890; and Rebecca H. Waring, 1890. William Ravenel's accounts with cotton factors, merchants, and tax collectors, and his business correspondence are included in Series 3.

Other estates for which settlement papers are included are: John Edwards, 1809; John Louis Ravenel, 1828; Mary Gaillard, 1828; Mrs. Paul Ravenel, 1852; Samuel DuBose, 1857-1858; and Jonathan Eady, 1854-1876 (Rene Ravenel, executor).

Series 1 contains personal correspondence, mostly of Theodore S. DuBose and his sister Ellen, who married William Ravenel. Series 4 includes miscellaneous items of interest, including a livestock record (1790-1897, incomplete) and a 10 page journal kept by two unidentified sisters. Information on slaves can be found in the personal correspondence and in the estate papers of Jonathan Eady, Samuel DuBose, Abigail Ravenel, John Louis Ravenel, and Mary Gaillard.

• Oversize papers (OP-1022/1-5)