Overview
Correspondence and family papers concerning the Carter family, an African-American family who were enslaved on the Warner plantation in Virginia, survived the Civil War, and went on to live in the Richmond, Virginia area after the war. Black historian and Harlem Renaissance figure C. Glenn Carrington was a relative of the Carter family.
Dates
- Creation: 1858-1924
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
.75 linear feet (2 boxes)Consists of autograph correspondence (and typescript transcripts) of the Carter family, but the majority of letters are to Hamilton Carter. Letters mostly concern news of family and friends and events of the day. Includes Hamilton Carter's household bills and receipts and tax receipts, as well as invitations, a tintype portrait, notes on funeral plans, menu, and other miscellany.
Biographical / Historical
The Carter family was an African-American family from Virginia that survived the Civil War and went on to build a life in and around Richmond. Polly Carter (d.1872) was enslaved on "Master Warner 's" plantation in Gloucester County, Virginia, with her husband and two children, Albert and Alexander. An alternative spelling of her name has been noted in archival description at Howard University, with the spelling Pollie Carter. Another son, Hamilton Carter, resided in nearby Richmond and was either a bondsman or a freeman. During the Civil War, Hamilton was employed as dining room servant to Henry C. Beuce, the proprietor of Irving Mills. In October of 1866, Hamilton was hired by Dr. George Ross, a prominent Richmond physician. Family correspondence and public records indicate that Polly Carter also had a fourth son, Robert Henry Carter.
In 1871 Hamilton married Martha Glenn, who was originally also from Richmond. They had 6 children: Cassie, Alize, Pierce, Hamilton, Jr., Mattie, and one child who died in 1881. The family lived for many years in a home they owned on the corner of 9th and Abigail Streets in the Madison Ward section of Richmond.
Black historian and Harlem Renaissance figure C. Glenn Carrington was a relative of the Carter family.
See internal file on-site at Houghton Library for additional information regarding the family.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Correspondence
- II. Other family papers
- ___A. Memorabilia
- ___B. Financial records
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
*98M-25. Purchased through Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, Inc., with funds from the Harmand Teplow Fund and from the W.E.B. DuBois Institute; received: 1998 Dec. 18.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt. Additional biographical/historical information added by Betts Coup, with guidance from Dorothy Berry in 2021.
- Title
- Carter family. Carter family papers: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00200
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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