Manuscripts Department
              Library of the University of North Carolina
                            at Chapel Hill

                    SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                                 #4638
                          SCOTT FAMILY PAPERS
                               Inventory

Abstract:  Letters and a few other items, 1839-1867, chiefly
relating to the members of the Scott family of New Hampshire and
Vermont.  The earliest papers are deeds, 1839 and 1849 copies of
1830 deeds, dealing with property of the Scotts' Warren family
relatives in Fairfax and Chittenden counties, Vt.  Letters begin
in 1857, with those of Rogene A. Scott Bailey (b. 1840), daughter
of Hanah Scott Warren, attending a private music school in
Burlington, Vt.  1858 letters also relate to Rogene, who was then
employed as a teacher in Grayson, Ky.  Letters 1859-June 1860
find Rogene teaching on a plantation near Cheneyville, La., and
those of August 1960-June 1862 document her teaching in
Nashville.  During her stay in the South, Rogene wrote frequently
about race relations, especially attitudes of slaves and
slaveholders towards each other and towards northerners like
herself.  In 1862, she wrote graphically about her work with
wounded soldiers.  Letters show that, in 1863, Rogene moved to
Hyde Park, Vt., where, with her new husband John Bailey,
apparently a Presbyterian minister, and her sister-in-law, Rogene
operated a fairly successful school.  There are also letters
relating to Rogene's brother Don E. Scott, who served with the
11th New Hampshire Volunteers.  In letters, 1862-1865, to his
mother, sister, and future wife Nancy Smith, Scott described
military life and his unit's involvement at the battles of
Fredricksburg, Vicksburg, and Petersburg.  From March 1863 to
January 1867, there are also other letters to Nancy, including
one from a friend who assisted freedmen in Wilmington, N.C.

Online Catalog Terms:
   Bailey, Rogene A. Scott, b. 1840.
   Cheneyville (La.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
   Confederate States of America--Social conditions.
   Family--New Hampshire--Social life and customs--19th century.
   Family--Vermont--Social life and customs--19th century.
   Fredricksburg (Va.), Battle of, 1862.
   Freedmen--North Carolina.
   Grayson (Ky.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
   Nashville (Tenn.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
   Petersburg Crater, Battle of, 1864.
   Race relations--Southern States--History--19th century.
   Schools--Southern States--History--19th century.
   Schools--Vermont--History--19th century.
   Scott, Don E.
   Scott family.
   Sectionalism (United States).
   Slavery--Southern States--History--19th century.
   Soldiers--United States--Correspondence--History--Civil War,
       1861-1865.
   United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Medical care.
   United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--War work.
   United States. Army--Military life.
   United States. Army. New Hampshire Volunteers, 11th.
   Vicksburg (Miss.)--History--Siege, 1863.
   Wilmington (N.C.)--History--19th century.
   Women teachers--Southern States--History--19th century.
   Women teachers--Vermont--History--19th century.
   Women--Education--Vermont--History--19th century.
   Women--Employment--Southern States--History--19th century.
   Women--Southern States--Social life and customs--19th century.

Size:  About 130 items (0.5 linear feet).

Provenance:    Unknown.

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.

                              DESCRIPTION

   Materials chiefly relating to members of the Scott family of
New Hampshire and Vermont as described below.

1839-1849:  Deeds, 1839 and 1849 copies of 1830 deeds, dealing
with property of the Smith's Warren family relatives in Fairfax
and Chittenden.

1857:  Letters from Rogene Scott at school in Burlington, Vt., to
her mother and brother Don.  Letters are chiefly about routine
family and school affairs.

1858:  Letters, chiefly to her mother and brother, from Rogene
Scott teaching school and giving private music lessons in
Grayson, Carter County, Ky., where she boarded with a Mr. and
Mrs. Carter.  In her first letter, dated 13 January, Rogene wrote
of her sympathy for slave house servants.  She also wrote of
feeling like the "Eastern Lady" on display and complained of the
lack of religious fervor and general laziness among her new
acquaintances.  By November, she was considering where to go
next.

1859:  Letters, chiefly to her mother and brother, from Rogene
Scott, who in January was en route to a new position in
Louisiana.  On 20 January, she wrote, "I sometimes get quite
afraid of being thus alone in the wide, wide world," but later
letters show Rogene as a fairly confident young woman, teaching
school at the Tanner plantation in Cheneyville, Rapides Parish,
La., and "not sad" that she chose to go South because she had
been able to learn from her experiences.  Most letters are fairly
descriptive of school and social life; many letters discuss
Rogene's feelings towards slavery.  On 3 April, she wrote, "The
Southern people denounce slavery as a curse and are even more
conscious of its evils than the North, but they deny the right of
the Northern people meddling with what does not in the least
concern them."  On 29 October, she wrote of the horrors that
would follow if efforts to stir slaves to insurrection were
successful.

1860:  Letters, chiefly to her mother and brother, from Rogene
Scott, first in Cheneyville and later in Nashville, Tenn.  In her
5 February letter, Rogene explained that the greatest object of
her life was "self-culture," followed closely by independence. 
Rogene sought to pursue this first goal more actively by moving
to Nashville around August, where she secured a position in a
school where she could learn French.  Letters from Nashville
chiefly tell of her school and social contacts.  There are also a
few letters lamenting the difficulties she had in Cheneyville and
how she was still hearing unpleasant things about herself from
Cheneyville acquaintances.  These difficulties were apparently
the result of a conversation she had with someone just before she
left for Nashville in which she declared that, even after years
in the South, she was still an abolitionist.  By the end of 1860,
Rogene was disturbed by the shadows of war on the horizon and
declared, "This is the saddest Christmas."

1861:  Letters, chiefly to her mother and brother, from Rogene
Scott, many of which deal with national events.  On 29 March, she
wrote that she felt no immediate personal danger in Nashville,
since she had held her tongue on the slavery issue since her
arrival.  On 7 April, she noted that her twenty-first birthday
had occurred the day before, and on 15 April told of the
possibility of becoming associate principal in the flourishing
school where she worked.  In May, there are a letters about "our
trouble as a nation," including one on 28 May in which she wrote
of rumors of slave rebellions in the Tennessee countryside.

1862:  Letters, March to May, from Rogene Scott in Nashville and,
September to December, from Don Scott with the 11th New Hampshire
Volunteers.  Rogene's letters document her work as a nurse.  The
18 March letters contains particularly descriptive passages on
wounds and on how she was treated by the soldiers she tried to
help.  On 28 May, Rogene wrote that she was unhappy with her
employer and did not wish to stay on at the school.  She also
wrote of feeling mistrusted as a northerner.  On 2 September, Don
wrote to his mother from Camp Colby in Concord, N.Y.  By 14
October, he was encamped around Pleasant Valley, Va., from which
he wrote of being shocked at the profanity used by his fellow
soldiers and about the general availability of temptations of all
kinds in camp.  On 1 November, he told his mother, "Death to me
has lost its sting, and would be but a welcome messenger to sever
the ties which bind my spirit to this dreary sinful world.  In a
letter of 16 December, he described his unit's participation in
the Battle of Fredricksburg.

1863:  Chiefly letters from Rogene Scott Bailey, now married and
living in Hyde Park, Vt., and from Don Scott with the 11th New
Hampshire Volunteers.  Rogene's letters talk almost exclusively
about her married life--"I am getting Yankee again--I don't
'reckon' anymore"--and school activities.  Rogene, her husband
John Bailey, apparently a Presbyterian minister, and her
sister-in-law, seem to have operated a fairly successful school. 
Don's letters show that his unit moved from Virginia to Kentucky
to Mississippi, where he participated in the Siege of Vicksburg,
and back to Kentucky.  There are also a few letters to Nancy
Smith, a social worker at Tyler House in New York City, from an
ex-soldier in Iowa and from her sister in Ohio.  Nancy Smith     
later married Don Scott.

1864-1867:  There are two letters from Rogene during this period: 
one in 1864 discusses the death of her father, and the other in
1867 is to brother Don about family affairs.  Don's letters are
chiefly love letters to Nancy Smith from various military camps,
mostly in Virginia.  There is also a 2 August letter to his
mother describing the Battle of Petersburg, Va.  There are also a
few letters to Nancy Smith, including one in 1864 from a friend
working with freedmen in Wilmington, N.C.

Folder 1       1839-1849
       2       1857
       3       1858
       4       1859
       5       1860
       6       1861
       7       1862
       8       1863
       9       1864-1867