Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 Sarah Frances Hicks Williams Letters, #3210, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. Warren Lott of Blackshear, Ga., April 1956.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

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.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, January 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

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.

• Charlton County (Ga.)--Social life and customs.
• Families--United States--Social life and customs.
• Georgia--Social conditions.
• Greene County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Hicks family.
• Plantation life--Georgia.
• Plantation life--North Carolina.
• Southern States--Description and travel.
• Ware County (Ga.)--Social life and customs.
• Williams family.
• Williams, Sarah Frances Hicks, b. 1827.
• Women--Education--New York (State)--History--19th century.
• Women--Southern States--Social life and customs.
• Women--United States--Social life and customs.

Sarah Frances Hicks Williams (b. 1827) was educated in Albany, N.Y. In 1853 she was married to Benjamin F. Williams, a North Carolina state legislator, railroad investor, and owner of turpentine properties, and thereafter resided in North Carolina and Georgia.

The collection includes letters from Sarah Frances Hicks to her parents in New Hartford, N.Y., while she was a student in Albany, N.Y.; visiting relatives in New York, Ohio, and New Hampshire; and after her marriage, in 1853, to Benjamin F. Williams, North Carolina state legislator, railroad investor, and owner of turpentine properties, in North Carolina and Georgia. Letters, 1853-1856, were written from Clifton Grove, Greene County, N.C.; 1857-1860, from Burnt Fort, Charlton County, Ga.; and 1860-1868, from Sunny Side, Ware County, Ga. They contain detailed accounts of daily life as wife, mother, and northern member of a southern family.

Letters pertaining to North Carolina were published as "Plantation Experiences of a New York Woman" in the North Carolina Historical Review (July and October, 1956).