The collection includes slave records and other papers relating to Henry Alderson Ellison, planter of Baldwin County, Ala., and his family, including a notebook (16 p.), containing lists of slaves belonging to Ellison in 1848 and 1858-1860 and records of their being hired out. Other papers include a letter, 30 October 1864, from Abram M. Allen, Washington, N.C., an Ellison slave who had been freed before the Civil War, to Eliza Tripp Ellison, Henry's widow, at Wilson, N.C., where she had taken refuge during the Civil War, in which he informed her of his whereabouts and offered hope for the future. Also included is a letter, 16 October 1867, to Eliza, now living near Mobile, Ala., from Edward Stanly (1810-1872), California politician who had been U.S. representative from North Carolina, describing conditions in California and evaluating prospects there for southerners; and five invitations to social functions in Beaufort County, N.C., 1877-1880 and undated, sent to Ellison and Bonner family member.
