Duncan McLaurin was a farmer, teacher, lawyer, and state legislator of Richmond County, North Carolina. Correspondence, bills, receipts, legal and other papers, and printed matter (1822-1872), of McLaurin and members of his family. McLaurin's papers (mainly 1822-1850) relate to economic conditions in North Carolina, South Carolina, and the U.S. in general; the development of infrastructure and education in North and South Carolina; the Civil War; politics in North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia; and national politics, including presidential elections from 1832 to 1848. Civil War topics include camp life, economic conditions, food supplies, the hope for foreign intervention, morale, conscription and desertion, the blockade of Southern ports, the battles of Murfreesboro (Tennessee), Jackson (Mississippi), Port Royal Harbor (South Carolina), Hanover Court House (Virginia), and the siege of Vicksburg (Mississippi). A large amount of correspondence from relatives in Mississippi (circa 1830-1867) concerns frontier conditions, slavery, politics, agricultural and labor problems, sectionalism and nationalism in Mississippi, Reconstruction conditions, and family affairs. There are many references to slavery, particularly in Mississippi: the sale of slaves, runaway slaves, a lynching of an African American in 1839, the fear of slave insurrections in 1856 and 1860; and the abolition movement. Includes an atlas with a list of slaves circa 1864 written on the flyleaf.

Personal and political correspondence, legal papers, bills and receipts, and printed material comprise the papers of Duncan McLaurin (1787-1872). Correspondence, including many letters from friends and relatives who migrated to Mississippi, discusses the forced removal of the Choctaw Indians; wars with tribes in Georgia and Alabama; economic conditions, especially the panics of 1837 and 1857; the Bank of the United States; banks and currency; cotton production, markets, and prices. There are many references to slavery, particularly in Mississippi: the sale of slaves, runaway slaves, a lynching of an African American in 1839, the fear of slave insurrections in 1856 and 1860; and the abolition movement. There are also references to the annexation of California; land prices and speculation; the growth of religious denominations in Mississippi and Louisiana; the development of schools in Mississippi, Georgia, and North Carolina, and of Wake Forest Institute (Wake Forest, North Carolina), and Union Seminary (Richmond, Virginia); the temperance movement; the early development of railroads, roads, and canals in North Carolina; politics in North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia; and national politics, including presidential elections, 1832-1848.

Civil War topics in the correspondence include camp life, economic conditions, food supplies, the hope for foreign intervention, morale, conscription and desertion, the blockade of Southern ports, the battles of Murfreesboro (Tennessee), Jackson (Mississippi), Port Royal Harbor (South Carolina), and Hanover Court House (Virginia), and the siege of Vicksburg (Mississippi); economic conditions and Reconstruction government in Mississippi; and difficulties with sharecroppers and debtors.

Legal papers consist of deeds, contracts, wills, court orders, and, after 1850, papers pertaining to the wardship of his sister, Isabel Patterson, and her children after her mental breakdown. Miscellaneous printed items include an atlas, 1835, with a list of slaves dating from the end of the war written on the flyleaf; a memorial to the North Carolina state legislature from the Society of Friends, 1832; a reply to President Jackson's proclamation on nullification; a report of the treasurer of the University of North Carolina to the trustees, 1839; a report of the Merchants Bank of New Bern, the Bank of the State of North Carolina, and the Bank of Cape Fear, 1838; a North Carolina Republican campaign circular, 1873; The Prison News, Raleigh, North Carolina, for March 1, 1932; and other various items.

The papers consist of correspondence, legal and financial papers, photographs, account books, a memoir book, and miscellaneous papers and span the time period from 1834 to 1953. The bulk of the papers consists of correspondence between 1862 and 1914. This correspondence falls roughly into three major periods, each one consisting of two or three dozen letters.

The first period lasts until the 1890s and focuses on G. F. Simpson's involvement with the construction of a silver ore-crushing mill in Helena, Montana Territory, a venture shared with his brother, Charles H. Simpson; land investments in Kansas; and, after the 1860s, iron ore mining operations in Virginia. The letters from Montana and Kansas also document the harsh life on the American frontier. Included with this mostly business correspondence are a few letters from Thomas B. Sykes describing his experiences at Camp Chase, a Union prisoner-of-war camp near Columbus, Ohio, and as a resident of Aberdeen, Miss. during Reconstruction.

The second period, from the 1890s to 1910, consists chiefly of letters to Emma or her sisters Mary and Mabel, which discuss news of family and friends.

The last period, 1910-1914, consists mostly of correspondence between Emma and her husband Dr. Samuel R. Glover during their courtship and early marriage. Dr. Glover's letters include a limited discussion of his medical practice.

The legal papers include a will, mortgages, and land deeds. The financial papers include receipts and notes, some belonging to the firm of Simpson, Bass and Co. of Richmond, Va., operated by Charles H. Simpson and L. L. Bass, who were commission merchants in flour, grain, hay, and other provisions. The miscellaneous papers include clippings and printed material. There are photographs of Emma Simpson Glover, J. W. Simpson, and Mrs. Margaret Simpson.

The bound volumes consist of two ledgers and accounts, 1914-1921, of Dr. Glover's medical practice; ledger and accounts, 1877-1882, of a general store in Nelson Co., Va., which includes entries for farm and farm labor; and a memoir or scrap book of Mary Simpson, consisting of printed material, clippings, ribbons, and other memorabilia. The memoir book originally served as the cash book of an unknown Virginia firm for 1834-1836.

The Dimitry, Hardeman, Stuart, and Mayes families were white Southerners involved in education, government, business, and the military during the time just before and after the Civil War. The collection includes correspondence that documents the lives of family members in the South from the 1850s to the 1890s. In addition to local family matters, there are accounts of Confederate army service and views on politics and government. Extensive writings on religious and mathematical topics as well as poetry are also to be found. Family members who are featured in the collection include Colonel Oscar J. E. Stuart, Sarah Hardeman Stuart, Oscar, James, and Edward Stuart, Ann Lewis Hardeman, William and Mary Hardeman, John Bull Smith Dimitry, Adelaide Stuart Dimitry, Bettie Stuart Mayes, Fanny Harris Mayes, Robert Burns Mayes, Robert Burns Mayes, Jr., and Robert Burns Mayes III.

The John Bull Smith Dimitry Papers, 1848-1922, 1943 (bulk 1857-1922), consists of writings by various members of the Dimitry, Hardeman, Stuart, and Mayes families, who were related by marriage. Correspondence includes detailed discussions related to the Confederacy, Civil War, and Reconstruction from the point of view of white Southerners living in the Mississippi, Virginia, and Kentucky areas. This correspondence provides considerable information on family affairs, including business and legal matters and the role of women. There are also letters describing life in South America in the 1870s. Poetry, religious, and mathematical writings relate primarily to the Mayes family.

This collection appears to have incorporated an earlier Mayes-Hardeman-Stuart Collection and there are many mimeographed copies of originals held by the Mississippi Deparment of Archives and History. These seem related to Aunt Ann's Boys, an unfinished project by Robert Burns Mayes, Jr. which compiled correspondence between James, Oscar, and Edward Stuart and their aunt, Ann Lewis Hardeman.

Details of these families are found in O'Brien, Michael (ed.). An Evening When Alone: Four Journals of Single Women in the South, 1827-67, Southern Texts Society/University Press of Virginia, 1993, which publishes the 1850-1867 journals of Ann Lewis Hardeman.