Iveson Lewis Brookes, teacher, Baptist minister, and planter, was born in Rockingham County, N.C. Brookes, a 1819 graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., amassed, through marriage and purchase, considerable holdings of land and slaves in Jasper and Jones counties in Georgia and Edgefield County and other locations in South Carolina. He also worked in schools for much of his life (teacher at Greensboro Academy, Greensboro, N.C., 1819; rector of Eatonton Academy, Eatonton, Ga., 1820s; principal of Penfield Female Academy, Penfield, Ga., 1840s), employing overseers to manage his plantations while he taught and preached at various Baptist churches. He was also active in national and local Baptist affairs and was a staunch defender of slavery. This collection consists chiefly of correspondence of Iveson Lewis Brookes. Most of the letters were written to Brookes by business associates, either about plantation or church business. There is, however, a considerable amount of family correspondence. Also included are about 15 letters, 1816-1819, written by Brookes to his father when he was a student at the University of North Carolina. There is also a small group of papers relating to Iveson Brookes's affairs and another to the property of Jesse Rountree of Edgefield County, S.C., and, after 1814, to James Myers. These papers continue through the early 1830s, when Brookes married Sarah J. Myers, widow of James Myers, who brought the Edgefield plantation property to the marriage. Also included are sermon fragments and notes in Brookes's hand and a few other items.
