Sam Thomas Papers Inventory (#5067-z)

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Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Collection Information
block Descriptive Summary Including Abstract
block Administrative Information
block Online Catalog Terms
block Biographical Note
block Collection Overview
plus Description
Contact Information:
Manuscripts Department
CB#3926, Wilson Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
Phone: 919/962-1345
Fax: 919/962-3594
Email: mss@email.unc.edu
URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
Processed by
Kristin Soya
Date Completed
November 2001
Encoded by
Kristin Soya
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Descriptive Summary Including Abstract

Title
Sam Thomas Papers (#5067-z) 1786-1835
Creator
Thomas, Sam, fl. 1786-1802.
Extent
8 items
Repository
Southern Historical Collection
Abstract
Sam Thomas was a free black man in Stokes County, N.C., in 1786. It appears that he was able to free his wife Amy in 1802. It also appears that members of the Thomas family moved to Ohio in the early 1800s, settling in Zanesville and Chillicothe. Their relationship to Sam Thomas is unknown. At some point, a Sam Thomas was accused of several crimes in Salem, N.C., including poisoning his wife. The collection includes items relating to the Thomas family, who had been slaves in Stokes County, N.C. In the earliest document, 1786, Frederick Marshall gave the "Negro Sam" the right to work some land for a yearly rent of either crops or money. There are also bonds, dated 1802, that freed Pleasant Thomas, Sam Thomas, John Thomas, and Amy, identified as Sam Thomas's wife. These bonds were signed by Sam Thomas and several white men from Salem, N.C., including Francis Clark, Archibald Campbell, and Gottlieb Shober. Also included are an 1826 letter to Mary Thomas in Zanesville, Ohio, from a sibling in Chillicothe, Ohio, which chiefly discusses the health of various relatives; a small printed paper stating that Thomas Laurence of Zanesville, Ohio, was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1835; and an undated statement, signed by William Johnson and Garrard Johnson, certifying certain criminal charges against "Black Sam Thomas" of Salem, N.C., who was charged with stealing clothes, robbing a wagon, fighting "whitemen," and poisoning his wife and others who were to be witnesses against him.
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Administrative Information

Access
No restrictions.
Usage Restrictions
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Provenance
Received from Ray Swick in July 2001 (Acc. 98999).
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Online Catalog Terms

African American criminals--North Carolina.
African American families--North Carolina.
African American families--Ohio.
African Methodist Episcopal Church--Clergy.
Free African Americans--North Carolina.
Salem (N.C.)--History.
Sharecropping--North Carolina--History--18th century.
Slavery--North Carolina--History--18th century.
Slavery--North Carolina--History--19th century.
Stokes County (N.C.)--History.
Thomas family.
Thomas, Sam, fl. 1786-1802.
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Biographical Note

Sam Thomas was a free black man in Stokes County, N.C., in 1786. It appears that he was able to free his wife Amy in 1802. It also appears that members of the Thomas family moved to Ohio in the early 1800s, settling in Zanesville and Chillicothe. Their relationship to Sam Thomas is unknown. At some point, a Sam Thomas was accused of several crimes in Salem, N.C., including poisoning his wife.

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Collection Overview

The collection includes items relating to members of the Thomas family, African Americans who had been slaves in Stokes County, N.C. In the earliest document, 1786, Frederick Marshall gave the "Negro Sam" the right to work some land for a yearly rent of either crops or money. There are also bonds, dated 1802, that freed Pleasant Thomas, Sam Thomas, John Thomas, and Amy, identified as Sam Thomas's wife. These bonds were signed by Sam Thomas and several white men from Salem, N.C., including Francis Clark, Archibald Campbell, and Gottlieb Shober. Also included are an 1826 letter to Mary Thomas in Zanesville, Ohio, from a sibling in Chillicothe, Ohio, which chiefly discusses the health of various relatives; a small printed paper stating that Thomas Laurence of Zanesville, Ohio, was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1835; and an undated statement, signed by William Johnson and Garrard Johnson, certifying certain criminal charges against "Black Sam Thomas" of Salem, N.C, who was charged with the crimes of stealing clothes, robbing a wagon, fighting "whitemen," and poisoning his wife and others who were to be witnesses against him.

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Description

Papers, 1786-1835.
8 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
The collection includes items relating to members of the Thomas family, African Americans who had been slaves in Stokes County, N.C. In the earliest document, 1786, Frederick Marshall gave the "Negro Sam" the right to work some land for a yearly rent of either crops or money. There are also bonds, dated 1802, that freed Pleasant Thomas, Sam Thomas, John Thomas, and Amy, identified as Sam Thomas's wife. These bonds were signed by Sam Thomas and several white men from Salem, N.C., including Francis Clark, Archibald Campbell, and Gottlieb Shober. Also included are an 1826 letter to Mary Thomas in Zanesville, Ohio, from a sibling in Chillicothe, Ohio, which chiefly discusses the health of various relatives; a small printed paper stating that Thomas Laurence of Zanesville, Ohio, was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1835; and an undated statement, signed by William Johnson and Garrard Johnson, certifying certain criminal charges against "Black Sam Thomas" of Salem, N.C, who was charged with the crimes of stealing clothes, robbing a wagon, fighting "whitemen," and poisoning his wife and others who were to be witnesses against him.
   Folder 1
Papers, 1786-1835

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