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Local figure

James Sidney Smith

James Sidney Smith (1819–1867), called Sidney, was a son of James Strudwick Smith of Hillsborough, where the family lived until 1847 and the Smith men were active in business and politics. Sidney raped Harriet, a woman the family enslaved, and she gave birth to his daughter Cornelia in 1844.

Source: UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, Smith family and early UNC connections

1 work about James Sidney Smith is indexed here. 1 held at OCPL →

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineHarriet, Cornelia and the Smith household, 1844–18521844–1852 · 5 events · According to UNC Libraries' account, Harriet, whom James Strudwick Smith had bought in 1834 as a maid for his daughter Mary Ruffin Smith, was raped by his son Sidney and gave birth to Cornelia in 1844. Cornelia's granddaughter Pauli Murray told the story in Proud Shoes. In 1845, shielding his property from creditors, Smith passed most of the family's holdings to Mary Ruffin Smith, selling her Harriet and her children Julius and Cornelia, and offered property in the Hillsborough Recorder to cover his debts; NCpedia says he went bankrupt that year. The family moved to Price Creek Plantation, southwest of Chapel Hill, and Harriet and her children moved with them. Smith died on December 7, 1852.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Harriet, enslaved by the Smith family in Hillsborough, gives birth to Cornelia after Sidney Smith rapes her Harriet, bought by James Strudwick Smith in 1834 as a maid for his daughter Mary Ruffin Smith, was raped by his son Sidney and gave birth to Cornelia in 1844, while the family's home was in Hillsborough. Cornelia's granddaughter Pauli Murray told the story in Proud Shoes. People: James Strudwick Smith, Mary Ruffin Smith, Pauli Murray, Cornelia Smith Fitzgerald Place: Hillsborough · Also named: HarrietSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Pauli Murray and UNC, Smith family and early UNC connections
  2. Sidney Smith is elected to the House of Commons for Orange County Orange County's 1846 election sent Giles Mebane, Chesley F. Faucett, John B. Leathers and Sidney Smith to the House of Commons, with Hugh Waddell in the state Senate. People: Giles Mebane, Hugh Waddell Place: Orange County · Also named: Chesley F. Faucett, John B. Leathers, Sidney SmithSearch the index · Documenting the American South: R. D. W. Connor, ed., A Manual of North Carolina (1913), p. 741
  3. Sidney Smith speaks for a state convention at an Orange County mass meeting in Hillsborough At an adjourned mass meeting of Orange County citizens in the Hillsborough courthouse after Lincoln's election, with William H. Brown in the chair, William A. Graham's committee reported resolutions on the crisis. John W. Norwood moved to ask the legislature to call a state convention; Capt. Berry opposed it, Sidney Smith spoke for it, and the amendment was rejected before the committee's resolutions passed. People: William A. Graham, John Wall Norwood, Dennis Heartt, William H. Brown Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Sidney Smith · Also mentions: Hillsborough courthouseSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, January 2, 1861, p. 2 (Mass Meeting in Hillsborough) · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, December 19, 1860, p. 3

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as James Sidney Smith, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Indexed works

Works about or by James Sidney Smith. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Miss Mary's Money

Jones, H. G. · 2014 · McFarland & Co.

H. G. Jones follows the fortune of Mary Ruffin Smith (1814-1885), the unmarried heiress whose Orange and Chatham County lands passed at her death to the University of North Carolina and the Episcopal Church. Chapters profile her grandfather Francis Jones, then trace the bequest through a quarrel among Episcopalians over Price Creek, the Chapel of the Cross and the university's buildings. A December 1885 New York Times report called the gift money; Jones shows it was land. Published by McFarland in 2014, 231 pages.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

✓ Held at OCPL NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State NCCU Durham Library of Congress Wake Forest Davidson Methodist CH Historical Society

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Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for James Sidney Smith Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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