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 Turnstall Family Letter #5249-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Historical Collectible Auctions of Burlington, N.C., in November 2005 (Acc. 100281).

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--Color--Social aspects--History--19th century.
• Child slaves--Virginia.
• Danville (Va.)--History--19th century.
• Slaveholders--Virginia.
• Slavery--Virginia.
• Turnstall family.
• Virginia--History--19th century.

W. P. Turnstall and his wife apparently lived in Danville, Va., around 1850, where they were slave owners.

The collection is a letter from Mrs. W. P. Turnstall in Danville, Va., to her husband, W. P. Turnstall in Richmond, Va., dated 25 January 1850 in which she acknowledges receipt of his gift of a female slave child and relates her satisfaction with the child in terms of skin color and sewing capabilities.