Biographical/historical information

Dr. Richard Williams was a Pitt County physician- as well as, perhaps, a surveyor- who enslaved a number of persons. Also, judging from the amount of foodstuffs he sold, Dr. Williams probably owned a sizable farm or plantation. He served his community- both whites and blacks- before, during, and after the Civil War (1847-1869).

Scope and arrangement

This one-hundred-page volume contains Dr. Williams' daybook and accompanying account book, as well as lists of birth, death and sale dates of enslaved black persons. This daybook gives a good indication of the extent of Dr. Williams' practice and plantation. Its entries include a debtor's or creditor's name, the guardian's name (where applicable), the amount owed, and a description of the service rendered or material sold. Medical services include doctor's visits, cutting gums, tooth extracting, cupping, purging, "midwifing," and even making a coffin. For these services, the patient's race was noted if "Negro." Other services were mostly those performed by Williams' enslaved persons for white people in the community and they include working at "the apple mill" or making various repairs. The Hiring-out system allowed a hirer to temporarily lease an enslaved person from an enslaver, generating revenue for the enslaver through the labor of the enslaved people completing the work. However, Dr. Williams apparently did do some surveying. Materials bought from Dr. Williams include various medicines as well as foodstuffs, tobacco, wool, and other miscellany.

Accompanying the daybook is an indexed, name-by-name record of most of the debits and credits created in the daybook transactions.

The list of enslaved persons' births pertains to the enslaver Dr. Williams' approximately forty enslaved persons that includes the first name of the enslaved person's mother, the date of birth (the earliest being 1775) and, for many of them, the date of death. Several entries give the date where an enslaved person was sold.

Administrative information

Custodial History

April 21, 1980, 1 volume; Daybook (1847-1869) of Pitt County, N.C., physician. Gift of the Pitt County Historical Society, Greenville, N.C.

Source of acquisition

Gift of Pitt County Historical Society

Processing information

Processed by Irwin Berent, January 1981

Encoded by Apex Data Services

Descriptions updated by Ashlyn Racine, May 2023; Updated by N. Hardison, June 2025

Copyright notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Metadata Rights Declaration

Key terms

Personal Names

Williams, Richard

Topical

Medicine--Practice--North Carolina--Pitt County--History--19th century
Physicians--North Carolina--Pitt County
Slaveholders--North Carolina--Pitt County
Slavery--North Carolina--Pitt County

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