Gaston County, North Carolina, in the Civil War


Book Description

Civil War histories typically center on the deeds of generals and sweeping depictions of battle. This unique study of one Southern county's war experience tells of ordinary soldiers and their wives, mothers and children, slaves, farmers, merchants, Unionists and deserters--through an examination of tax records. The recently discovered 1863 Gaston County, North Carolina, tax list provides a detailed economic and social picture of a war-weary community, recording what taxpayers owned, cataloging slaves by name, age and monetary value, and assessing luxury items. Contemporary diaries, letters and other previously unpublished documents complete the picture, describing cotton mill operations, the lives of slaves, political disagreements, rationales for soldiers' enlistments and desertions, and economic struggles on the home front.




The Confessions of Edward Isham


Book Description

In 1859, the Georgian Edward Isham, convicted in North Carolina of murdering a Piedmont farmer, dictated his life to his defence-attorney. This autobiography provides a perspective on the poor whites, and is accompanied by a selection of essays.




They Sought a Land


Book Description

In 1840, prosperous farming families left North and South Carolina to trek in covered wagons to the unsettled Arkansas River Valley. Absorbing to read and rich with colorful detail, this is a story of the peopling of the western frontier and the ways in which hardship, religion, and a shared past bound settlers together into a lasting community.




Descendants of William Cromartie and Ruhamah Doane


Book Description

This ambitious work chronicles 250 years of the Cromartie family genealogical history. Included in the index of nearly fifty thousand names are the current generations, and all of those preceding, which trace ancestry to our family patriarch, William Cromartie, who was born in 1731 in Orkney, Scotland, and his second wife, Ruhamah Doane, who was born in 1745. Arriving in America in 1758, William Cromartie settled and developed a plantation on South River, a tributary of the Cape Fear near Wilmington, North Carolina. On April 2, 1766, William married Ruhamah Doane, a fifth-generation descendant of a Mayflower passenger to Plymouth, Stephen Hopkins. If Cromartie is your last name or that of one of your blood relatives, it is almost certain that you can trace your ancestry to one of the thirteen children of William Cromartie , his first wife, and Ruhamah Doane, who became the founding ancestors of our Cromartie family in America: William Jr., James, Thankful, Elizabeth, Hannah Ruhamah, Alexander, John, Margaret Nancy, Mary, Catherine, Jean, Peter Patrick, and Ann E. Cromartie. These four volumes hold an account of the descent of each of these first-generation Cromarties in America, including personal anecdotes, photographs, copies of family bibles, wills, and other historical documents. Their pages hold a personal record of our ancestors and where you belong in the Cromartie family tree.




The American Census Handbook


Book Description

Offers a guide to census indexes, including federal, state, county, and town records, available in print and online; arranged by year, geographically, and by topic.




The Civil War in North Carolina, Volume 1: The Piedmont


Book Description

"I think that we can hold our position here against any force that the enemy can bring against us, as we have an admirable position & are all ready. I can give you no idea when the general attack will take place. It may be this evening, tomorrow or at any moment as both parties are apparently ready & we have nothing to do but pitch in."--Captain Charles C. Blacknall, "Granville Rifles," Company G, 23rd North Carolina Troops, Yorktown, Virginia, April 22, 1862 This work is a compilation of letters and diary entries (and a few other documents) that tell the Civil War experiences of soldiers and citizens from 29 North Carolina counties: Alamance, Alexander, Anson, Cabarrus, Caswell, Catawba, Chatham, Cleveland, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Gaston, Granville, Guilford, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Moore, Orange, Person, Randolph, Richmond, Rockingham, Rowan, Stanly, Stokes, Union, and Yadkin. The book is arranged chronologically, 1861 through 1865, and a chart at the beginning of each chapter tells the date, subject, document type (letter, diary entry, or other), author, recipient, and the home county and unit of soldiers.




Family Or Freedom


Book Description

In the antebellum South, the presence of free people of color was problematic to the white population. Not only were they possible assistants to enslaved people and potential members of the labor force; their very existence undermined popular justifications for slavery. It is no surprise that, by the end of the Civil War, nine Southern states had enacted legal provisions for the "voluntary" enslavement of free blacks. What is surprising to modern sensibilities and perplexing to scholars is that some individuals did petition to rescind their freedom. Family or Freedom investigates the incentives for free African Americans living in the antebellum South to sacrifice their liberty for a life in bondage. Author Emily West looks at the many factors influencing these dire decisions -- from desperate poverty to the threat of expulsion -- and demonstrates that the desire for family unity was the most important consideration for African Americans who submitted to voluntary enslavement. The first study of its kind to examine the phenomenon throughout the South, this meticulously researched volume offers the most thorough exploration of this complex issue to date.




Schooling the New South


Book Description

Schooling the New South deftly combines social and political history, gender studies, and African American history into a story of educational reform. James Leloudis recreates North Carolina's classrooms as they existed at the turn of the century and explores the wide-ranging social and psychological implications of the transition from old-fashioned common schools to modern graded schools. He argues that this critical change in methods of instruction both reflected and guided the transformation of the American South. According to Leloudis, architects of the New South embraced the public school as an institution capable of remodeling their world according to the principles of free labor and market exchange. By altering habits of learning, they hoped to instill in students a vision of life that valued individual ambition and enterprise above the familiar relations of family, church, and community. Their efforts eventually created both a social and a pedagogical revolution, says Leloudis. Public schools became what they are today--the primary institution responsible for the socialization of children and therefore the principal battleground for society's conflicts over race, class, and gender. Southern History/Education/North Carolina




Red Book


Book Description

" ... provides updated county and town listings within the same overall state-by-state organization ... information on records and holdings for every county in the United States, as well as excellent maps from renowned mapmaker William Dollarhide ... The availability of census records such as federal, state, and territorial census reports is covered in detail ... Vital records are also discussed, including when and where they were kept and how"--Publisher decription.