The papers of Thomas Carroll span the years 1844 to 1914 with the majority of the papers dating from 1844 to 1887. They consist primarily of correspondence and accounts relating to his plantation, general store, and guardianship of orphans.
Carroll owned a plantation in the antebellum, Civil War, and postwar periods. After the mid-1870s he lived in Virginia and elsewhere in North Carolina, renting his farm to tenants. The correspondence documents his plantation business, especially trade with commission merchants between Norfolk, Virginia, and New York City and in Liverpool, England. There are also references to enslaved persons, freedmen, tenant farmers, the cotton trade, and the agricultural economy and Reconstruction in North Carolina and other Southern states where family members lived. The Account Book, 1844-1867, contains lists of enslaved persons and transactions involving the renting of enslaved laborer, overseers, workers, wages, midwives, a Petersburg merchant, educational expenses, and goods and services for numerous persons including architect Jacob W. Holt. The financial papers also document the financial aspects of enlavement: renting enslaved labor, paying overseers, and educational expenses.
Carroll was the guardian of several orphans who included children of Congressman Joel Holleman. Financial papers and the Account Book, 1844-1867, contain guardianship accounts.
Two volumes from Carroll's general store document his mercantile business before the Civil War. The ledgers include accounts of free Blacks, a shoe shop, Jacob W. Holt, and many enslaved persons. The other volume contains inventories of goods and debts.
