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

                 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                             #3296-z
            COURTLANDT VAN RENSSELAER LETTER FRAGMENT
                            Inventory

Abstract:      Pages 2-4 of a letter to Reverend Van Rensselaer,
           New York Presbyterian minister then giving religious
           instruction to slaves in Virginia, from Samuel S.
           Davis in Camden, S.C., describing opposition to such
           work at Savannah, Ga., and other matters.

Online Catalog Terms:
   Clergy--Virginia--History--19th century.
   Davis, Samuel S., fl. 1835-1836.
   Presbyterian Church--Virginia--History--19th century.
   Savannah (Ga.)--Race relations--19th century.
   Slavery and the church--Virginia.
   Slaves--Education--Georgia.
   Slaves--Virginia--Religion.
   Van Rensselaer, Courtlandt, 1808-1860.

Size:  1 item (1 folder).

Provenance:    Purchased from Munroe D'Antignac of Griffin, Ga.,
               in April 1857.

Access:        No restrictions.

Processing Note:   This collection was processed with support
                   from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.  

Copyright:     Retained by the authors of items in these papers,
               or their descendants, as stipulated by United
               States copyright law.

Table of Contents
   Historical Note

                         HISTORICAL NOTE

   Courtlandt Van Rensselaer (1808-1860) was the son of Stephen
and Cornelia Patterson Van Rensselaer.  After graduating from
Yale in 1823 and studying law, he attended Union Seminary at
Hampden-Sydney, Va., and was ordained in April 1835.  He gave
religious instruction to slaves on Virginia plantations for about
a year before opposition to him increased to such an extent that
he went back to the North in August 1836.  He spent the rest of
his career in the North as a Presbyterian fund raiser, chief of
the Presbyterian Board of Education, lecturer, and writer.

[For further information see the Dictionary of American
Biography.]