Collection (1856, undated) consisting letters requesting prompt payment for a debt and correspondence.
The Dupree family originally were from Brunswick County, Virginia. In 1771, James Dupree moved to Pitt County with his wife and three sons. The Dupree family lived in Pitt County and had about 360 acres by 1779 around Autres Creek. When James Dupree died in ca. 1785, his youngest son Thomas Dupree inherited his father land when he reached maturity. James' other sons, were already married and living nearby.
Thomas Dupree married Nancy Ann Renn and they had five children, Allen Renn, Finette, Redmond Renn, William Redmond, and Thomas Bird. Thomas Dupree continued to but land in Pitt and Edgecombe County, and by 1804 the Dupree family owned almost 2,000 acres.
In addition to being a landowner and farmer, Thomas Dupree was an ordained minister and was active in the Primitive Baptist Church and served as a preacher, messenger, and elder. In 1840, Thomas' son Thomas Bird, was still living in the home along with eighteen enslaved men and women. He married Penina May and had four children, Robert Williams, Benjamin Franklin, Laura Penelope, and Joseph Alvin. After Penina's death Thomas Bird married her younger sister Sarah W. May and had four children together, James W. Thomas, Francis Marion, and Redmond Renn.
Thomas B. Dupree's real estate holdings were valued at $1,841 and consisted of 500 acres and livestock. The Dupree family enslaved over thirty men and women and the number of enslaved people continued to grow over the years. After the Civil War, the plantation went unscathed and the family continued growing cotton, sweet potatoes, and Irish potatoes. However, they had to begin paying the freed men and women wages for their work. Twenty years after the Civil War, the Dupree family struggled financially, and by 1896, much of the land was sold off to the Moore family.
The collection consists of a letter (1856) requesting prompt payment for a debt and referring to "hard times; " undated notes pertaining to the leasing of land for wheat cultivation and commenting on illnesses in the Dupree household; and a remedy (undated) for the fever.
Gift of J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University
Processed by D. Lennon
Encoded by Apex Data Services
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