Kenneth Rayner Correspondence
Dublin Core
Title
Kenneth Rayner Correspondence
Subject
Antebellum Plantation Life
Description
Correspondence from Kenneth Rayner--politician, farmer, and owner of slaves on Chicot County, Arkansas, plantation. Married to Susan Polk, daughter of Bishop Polk. Letters convey the relocation of slaves from Tennessee to a new plantation in Arkansas. Two letters describe in detail two difficult transportation routes of the day and common modes of transport between Raleigh, North Carolina, and central Tennessee, generally avoiding the Appalachian Mountains along a northern route and a southern route. Letters written to Duncan Cameron, family friend and banker in Raleigh, NC.
Creator
Kenneth Rayner
Source
Cameron Family Papers, 1757-1978
Publisher
Photographed, transcribed, tagged, and shared in this Omeka Collection by Dr. Kevin Oliver, North Carolina State University College of Education
Date
1845-1847
Rights
As noted in the source collection, “copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.”
Relation
The Southern Historical Collection at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Format
PDF
Language
English
Type
Personal correspondence, letter
Coverage
United States: Huntsville, AL; Montgomery, AL; Tuscaloosa, AL; Fayette, AR; Atlanta, GA; Augusta, GA; Cartersville, GA; Savannah, GA; Louisiana; New Orleans, LA; Mississippi; Branchville, SC; Charleston, SC; Columbia, SC; Columbia, TN; Maury County, TN; Memphis, TN; Pulaski, TN; Texas
Collection Items
Kenneth Rayner Letter, November 14, 1845
Rayner relays details of an 11-day journey from Raleigh to Maury County, Tennessee, involving railroads, stagecoaches, and horseback travel. Excellent insight into available roads, stagecoach routes, and terminus points at the time. On the first part…
Kenneth Rayner Letter, December 21, 1845
Rayner writes to family friend and banker Duncan Cameron in Raleigh, describing the purchase of a new plantation in Arkansas with specifics on the land (acreage, above "high overflow" or flood stage, portion cleared, caving bank, in a favorable…
Kenneth Rayner Letter, January 18, 1845
Rayner begins to set up his new plantation, slaves and mules relocated to site after 36-hour steamboat journey from Memphis, slave houses and fencing repaired, desires to purchase neighboring land from Arkansas Sentator Ashley, asks banker Duncan…
Kenneth Rayner Letter, February 8, 1846
Rayner makes his way home to North Carolina by way of Belmont Plantation in Fayette County, Tennessee, just east of Memphis. He writes to banker Duncan Cameron in Raleigh to vouch for $400 with a bank in New York to cover his ongoing expenses from…
Kenneth Rayner Letter, November 5, 1847
Rayner describes a 17-day journey with his family from Raleigh to Baltimore to Wheeling to Cincinnati to Louisville to Nashville, avoiding Pittsburgh for danger of carrying slaves through region, meets up with Maury County friends George and Lucius…
Kenneth Rayner Letter, December 18, 1847
Rayner continues south on his journey by horseback, then stage, then steamboat, checking on his lands with hopes of selling some, describes good overseer and cotton crop on plantation in Arkansas, and solicits banker Duncan Cameron for…