In October 1798 Elizabeth Wells named Thomas Crayton of Randolph County before Orange justices as the father of her coming child. Naming a father before the justices was the step toward a bastardy bond, by which the reputed father gave bond to support the child so that the county would not have to. Her daughter Margaret was born on December 8, and in March 1799 the Cane Creek Women's Meeting of Friends disowned her for having a child while unmarried. In April 1803 she gave the meeting a written offering condemning her past conduct, which it received as satisfaction. In March 1800 Rachel Jackson named Joshua Thompson to the county justices as the father of a son born that February. That September the Eno preparative meeting complained of her to the Spring women's monthly meeting, which sent two women to visit her, signed a testimony against her in October and heard in November that it had been read to her.
In April 1805 the Cane Creek preparative meeting complained of Miriam Lamb; the women's meeting signed a testimony against her in May, and by June Joseph Hill had read it out at the close of a meeting for worship. The meetings also acted against a father. In October 1816 Elizabeth McCain named a James Jackson, son of Isaac, as the father of her child, and in November the Eno preparative meeting complained that James Jackson had been lawfully charged; when he did not make satisfaction, the Spring meeting disowned him in December. Anna E. Culbertson, received into the Society at her own request in 1822, was complained of in January 1825, and when the women sent to visit her reported that she was not in a frame of mind to make satisfaction, the Spring women's meeting disowned her in February. In June 1828 the Cane Creek women disowned Elizabeth Marshall from membership for having a child while unmarried.
Further reading
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are the most widely held histories of the theme it is filed under, so they may not discuss it. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Background on Women's Lives & History · the most widely held histories of the theme this storyline is filed under; they may not discuss it
To Free A Family
Nathans, Sydney · 2012 · Harvard University Press
Sydney Nathans's biography of Mary Walker, an enslaved woman from Orange County who escaped to the North in the mid nineteenth century and spent the following decades in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working to free the family she had left behind. Chapter titles trace her flight, her years among Northern friends, a rescue plot, a long silence, and the reunion that gives the book its close. Published 2012 by Harvard University Press, 330 pages with 20 pages of plates, illustrations and maps.
Reviewed in Choice Reviews Online (2012), Civil War Book Review (2012).
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.
The Woman Who Rang the Bell: The Story of Cornelia Spencer Phillips
Russell, Charles Phillips · 1949
Charles Phillips Russell's biography of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825-1908), the Chapel Hill writer remembered for ringing the bell of South Building when the university reopened in 1875 after its closure during Reconstruction. It doubles as a history of Chapel Hill and the university. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1949, 293 pages with illustrations.
Reviewed in Journal of American History (1949).
Old Days in Chapel Hill
Chamberlain, G. Hope Summerell · 1926
Hope Summerell Chamberlain's life and letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825 to 1908), published in 1926, which doubles as a picture of Chapel Hill and the university in the nineteenth century. It runs 325 pages with illustrations and portraits.
Selected Papers of Cornelia Phillips Spencer
Spencer, Cornelia Phillips · 1953
Selected writings of Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825 to 1908), the Chapel Hill writer who campaigned for the university's reopening after Reconstruction, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1953. The 753 pages touch on Chapel Hill life, education and the university in the nineteenth century.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1954).
Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray
Rosenberg, Rosalind · 2017
Rosalind Rosenberg's 2017 biography of Pauli Murray (1910-1985), lawyer, poet and Episcopal priest, raised in Durham. Its six parts follow a Southern childhood, the move to New York, the 1938 application to the University of North Carolina that was refused because Murray was Black (the chapter is titled 'Members of your race are not admitted'), law school and the coining of the phrase Jane Crow, the Cold War years, the push toward 'an NAACP for women', and a late-life ordination. 494 pages with portraits.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2018).
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Well worth a shindy : the architectural and philosophical history of the Old Well at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Madry, Sarah Brandes · 2003 · iUniverse
Sarah Brandes Madry's history of the Old Well at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, treating both its architecture and the ideas attached to it. It takes in drinking fountains and water use in Chapel Hill and the university's history, with a chapter on Edwin Anderson Alderman, the president under whom the well took its present form in 1897, and one on water at the university. Published by iUniverse in 2003, 399 pages with illustrations.
Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave
Fleischner, Jennifer · 2003 · Broadway Books
Jennifer Fleischner's double biography of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley, the dressmaker who had been enslaved, including years in Hillsborough, before buying her freedom and becoming the First Lady's confidante. Published by Broadway Books in New York in 2003, 372 pages with illustrations and a map. Topics include enslaved women in Hillsborough and the United States, dressmakers and women's friendships in the nineteenth century.
The Book of Burwell Students
Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1979 · Historic Hillsborough Commission
Mary Claire Engstrom's biographical register of the young women who attended the Burwell School in Hillsborough, subtitled lives of educated women in the antebellum South. The school was kept by Margaret Anna Burwell and her husband, and the book bears on women's education in nineteenth-century North Carolina. Published by the Historic Hillsborough Commission, 1979, 256 pages with illustrations and portraits.
The last ninety days of the war in North-Carolina
Spencer, Cornelia Phillips · 2005 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Cornelia Phillips Spencer's account of the closing weeks of the Civil War in North Carolina, reissued in 2005 as an electronic edition by the University Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. Topics include the 1865 campaigns, Sherman's march through the Carolinas, Stoneman's raid, and the history of Chapel Hill and the university in the nineteenth century, where Spencer, 1825 to 1908, spent her working life.
More than petticoats
Cohn, Scotti · 2000 · TwoDot
Scotti Cohn's short biographies of notable North Carolina women, including Harriet Jacobs, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Annie Lowrie Alexander and Cornelia Phillips Spencer of Chapel Hill. Published by Twodot in 2000, 198 pages with illustrations.
First Women of Orange County
1994 · Orange County Women's History Month Committee
A Women's History Month project of 1993 and 1994 from the Orange County Women's History Month Committee, profiling women who were firsts in the county. Published in Chapel Hill in 1994, 13 pages plus unnumbered leaves with illustrations, facsimiles and portraits.
