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Collection Number: 01307

Collection Title: Floyd L. Whitehead Papers, 1830-1886

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.


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.

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Size 0.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 370 items)
Abstract The collection documents Floyd L. Whitehead, a white merchant, trafficker in enslaved people, deputy sheriff, and tobacco planter of Nelson County, Va. Business, financial, and legal materials include bills of sale for enslaved people, letters from tobacco dealers, records of tobacco sales, tax and other receipts, promissory notes, and legal documents concerning the settlement of estates, land and property disputes, and the collection of debts, some as sheriff. Personal papers include several letters in the 1860s from Floyd's son, Alexander R. Whitehead, in Jackson County, Ala., describing family news and economic conditions, and his impressions of the Confederate Army and its officers during his service in the American Civil War. There are also a few miscellaneous items relating to Floyd's brother, John Whitehead, and printed material, including advertising circulars and an 1855 broadside relating to local elections.
Creator Whitehead, Floyd L.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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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.
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Processed by: Elizabeth Pauk, August 1991

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Revised by: Nancy Kaiser, August 2022

Conscious editing by Nancy Kaiser, August 2022: abstract, subject headings, biographical note, scope content note, container list.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

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.

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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.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Floyd L. Whitehead (fl. 1830-1886) was a white merchant, trafficker in enslaved people, deputy sheriff, and tobacco planter in Nelson County, Va. He served as a justice of the peace for Nelson County in the 1840s. 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.

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Chiefly financial, business, and legal papers of Floyd L. Whitehead, a white merchant, trafficker in enslaved people, deputy sheriff, and tobacco planter in Nelson County, Va. There are also some personal papers, and several items relating to Whitehead's brother John.

Business and financial material includes bills of sale for enslaved people, 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, and Confederate tax forms. 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.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Floyd L. Whitehead Papers, 1830-1886.

Folder 1

Papers, 1830-1839

1832: sheriff's account sheet listing taxes paid on 4 unnamed enslaved people by Nelson Monroe of Nelson County, Va.; payment for keeping 2 unnamed enslaved people, presumably in jail; the sale of Ginny, an enslaved woman, and Richard, an enslaved boy, on 28 September 1829.

24 October 1836: bill of sale for Louisa, an enslaved woman about 28 years of age and Sarah Ann, an enslaved girl of about 13 years of age, who had been purchased by Floyd L. Whitehead from Arthur Hopkins in Nelson County, Va.

Folder 2

Papers, 1840-1849

Folder 3

Papers, 1850

Folder 4

Papers, 1851

Folder 5

Papers, 1852

Folder 6

Papers, 1853

Folder 7

Papers, 1854-1859

Folder 8

Papers, 1860-1886

8 June 1865: labor and provisions contract between Floyd L. Whitehead and formerly enslaved people belonging to the trust estate of Maria P. Whitehead: Nat, Mary and their children Otha, Joshua, Edmond, and Dorah; Richard, Sarah Jane and their children, Nannie, Silas, Molly, Richard, and Ginny; Daniel and Hannah; Orville and his mother Betsey; and Evelyn.

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