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 Floyd L. Whitehead Papers #1307, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. Charles A. Peple of Richmond, Va., in 1947.

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.

• Confederate States of America Army--Military life.
• Families--Virginia--Social life and customs.
• Jackson County (Ala.)--Social life and customs.
• Merchants--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Nelson County (Va.)--Economic conditions.
• Nelson County (Va.)--Social life and customs.
• Plantations--Virginia.
• Slavery--Virginia.
• Tobacco farmers--Virginia--History--19th century.
• Whitehead family.
• Whitehead, Alexander R., fl. 1852-1865.
• Whitehead, Floyd L.
• Whitehead, John, fl. 1830-1886.

• Floyd L. Whitehead Papers, Duke University

Floyd L. Whitehead (fl. 1830-1886) was a merchant, slave trader, and tobacco planter in Nelson County, Va. He had several business partners, including his brother John Whitehead. He and his wife, Maria P. Whitehead, had several children, including Alexander R. (fl. 1852-1865); Floyd L., Jr.; George; Sallie; and Fannie. Alexander relocated to Jackson County, Ala., around 1860, and married Margaret Stogsdill that same year. Alexander and George both served in the Confederate Army. Whitehead served as a justice of the peace for Nelson County in the 1840s.

Chiefly of financial, business, and legal papers of Floyd L. Whitehead, including some personal papers, and several items relating to Whitehead's brother John.

Business and financial material includes letters from tobacco dealers in Richmond, Va., particularly in the 1830s, and other business correspondence, indentures, receipts for household expenses and tobacco sales, tax records, Confederate tax forms, and slave bills of sale. A letter dated 1838 regarding the federal government's sub treasury policy oulined the conservative politics of W. C. Rives. Beginning in the 1840s, there is an increasing amount of material relating to Floyd L. Whitehead's business concerns, including customer receipts, promissory notes, lists of accounts, and a notebook of tobacco sales. Legal material relates to the settlement of estates, land and property disputes, and the collection of bad debts.

Other papers include a letter to the editor of a Lynchburg, Va., newspaper, in 1846, protesting a case of slander involving Whitehead and his former partner, Nathan Lofftus. A letter of 1855 discusses Whitehead's investment with others in lands in Rusk County, Tex., and legal problems in that state. Another letter of 1855 discusses a suit involving Whitehead being heard in the Virginia Court of Appeals. There is also a letter that discusses the medical treatment of paupers in Nelson County, Va., in the 1850s. In the 1860s, there are several letters from Alexander R. Whitehead to his father describing Alexander's marriage and economic prospects in Jackson County, Ala., and his impressions of the army and its officers while in the Confederate Army in New Dalton, Ga. Papers of 1863 concern the efforts of Maria Effinger Massie to settle William Massie's estate. Miscellaneous items include an announcement of Hoyt's lotteries; a circular regarding an endowment campaign for the Andrew Female College in Cuthbert, Ga.; a newspaper clipping about Reconstruction; and a broadside for the election of the sheriff in Nelson County, Va., in 1855.