Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 George W. Robertson Papers #5516, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Karen Avants in February 2012 (Acc. 101560).

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.

• African Americans--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Caswell County (N.C.)--History.
• Caswell County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Clinton (Miss.)--History.
• Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
• Confederate States of America. Army. North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 13th.
• Families--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Gaines' Mill, Battle of, Va., 1862.
• Mississippi--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• North Carolina--Race relations--History--19th century.
• Physicians--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--North Carolina.
• Robertson family.
• Robertson, George W., fl. 1807-1855.
• Robertson, Willie P. M., 1842-1862.
• Slave records--North Carolina.
• Slave trade--Alabama.
• Slave trade--North Carolina.
• Slave trade--Virginia.
• Slavery--Alabama.
• Slavery--North Carolina.
• Slavery--Virginia.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Photographs.
• Tobacco--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Vicksburg (Miss.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Women--Mississippi--History--19th century.
• Women--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Women--North Carolina--Social conditions.
• Yanceyville (N.C.)--History.
• Yanceyville (N.C.)--Social life and customs.

George W. Robertson (fl. 1807-1855) was born to Joab Robertson (1780-circa 1871) and Sarah Boswell Robertson (d. Bef 1831) in Person County, N.C. In 1826, he married Sarah Allen (1803-1871) and together they resided in Caswell County, N.C. Robertson was a physician by trade, but also operated a tobacco warehouse and prizery and bought and sold slaves on speculation. Robertson and his partners, Wooding, Willis, Ware, and Gwynn, acquired funds for slave trading from New York, the Bank of Raleigh, the Bank of Danville, and the Bank of North Carolina at Milton. They bought slaves in Hillsborough, Oxford, Raleigh, Salem, Fayetteville, Chatham County, and Surry County in North Carolina, and in Danville, Clarksville, Halifax, and Norfolk in Virginia. Slaves were transported as far south as Alabama to be sold for profit, often by his son, Joab Robertson, and Robert Gwynn.

George and Sarah Allen Robertson had eight children: Joab (1828-1863); Mary Royal (1830-1896); Sarah A. ("Sallie") (1833-1923); Isabelle G. ("Belle") (1836-1922); Eliza Ann (1838-1909); Lucy Della Park (1841-1919); Willie Person Mangum (1842-1862); Georgia (1847-1917). Mary Royal Robertson married Wallace Alexander and with him had three children that survived childhood: George, Ella, and Frank. Willie P.M. Robertson enlisted with the Yanceyville Greys, Company A, 13th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, and died 27 June 1862 at the Battle of Gaines' Mill in Virginia.

Eliza Baldwin Skidmore Carraway, a friend of Eliza Ann Robertson, married Veston Carraway of Clinton, Miss. He was killed at Mumsford, Ky., in September 1862, and two of their children also died during the war. Union soldiers encamped at Eliza Carraway's place after the fall of Vicksburg, Miss.

The collection documents the slave and tobacco dealings of George W. Robertson and his business partners in Yanceyville, Caswell County, N.C., as well as the Civil War and Reconstruction experiences of other Robertson family members and friends. Financial papers consist of records with the names, ages, and prices of enslaved people purchased and sold by Robertson and his partners. The slave and tobacco ledger chiefly contains a record of purchase and sale of tobacco, but there are also numerous references to buying and selling slaves in North Carolina and Virginia and evidence of three separate trips to Alabama to sell slaves. Letters describe two of the slave sales trips; anticipation of the Civil War; courtship; the Yanceyville homefront during the war; the concerns of Eliza Baldwin Skidmore Carraway, a newlywed bride in Clinton, Miss., in 1860 and later in the aftermath of the fall of Vicksburg when her slaves departed and Union soldiers encamped on her land; and Mary Royal Robertson Alexander's everyday concerns in 1870, including her fear of and frustration with African Americans. Other materials include clippings of recipes, housekeeping advice, and home remedies for illnesses and pests; a tintype of Willie P.M. Robertson in Confederate Army uniform; and several copies of the Bible and other volumes, some with marginal notes recording births, deaths, marriages, and thoughts of their owners. There is also a file of background information on curing yellow or bright leaf tobacco; family history; Willie P.M. Robertson's death and the Battle of Gaines' Mill; and transcriptions from the slave and tobacco ledger and of the marginal notes in Sallie Robertson's Bible.

• Photographs (PF-5516/1 and SF-P-5516/1