James Redding Grist Business records, 1780-1920

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Summary

Creator:
Grist, James Redding, 1818-1876
Extent:
5 Linear Feet
3,269 Items
Language:
English.
Collection ID:
RL.00484

Background

Scope and content:

Correspondence, accounts, manifests, and other papers, of James Redding Grist, his father, Allen Grist, and of other members of the family. Materials relate to the operation of a general store, trade with the West Indies, Richard Grist's export business in New Bern, N.C., J. R. Grist's turpentine business near Wilmington, N.C., and his efforts to revive his trade in naval stores after the Civil War. Includes taxation lists, ca. 1815-1816, for Beaufort Co., N.C. Correspondents include Henry Toole Clark. A bound volume, Allen Grist and Thomas Dickinson Ledger, contains entries relating to the operation of a North Carolina general store and an earlier similar operation in the West Indies. The first half of the volume comprises the Thomas Dickinson ledger from St. Eustatius, West Indies, 1780-1781, with entries documenting payments for rum, madeira, clothing for enslaved people, cheese, flour, twine, nails, brown sugar, needles, and other sundries. His relation, if any, to the Grists is not known. The second half of the volume comprises the ledger of Allen Grist of Washington, Beaufort County, NC, 1813-1816, with entries for food, spirits, building material, and other sundries. A few entries in each section record slave transactions: money lent for the purchase of enslaved people, money paid for their labor, or money received for the actual sale of enslaved people.

Biographical / historical:

James Redding Grist was a white businessman and plantation owner from Washington, North Carolina. He owned plantations in Brunswick County, Columbus County (Grist's Station), and Bladen County (Council's Station), and operated general stores and a turpentine distillery. U.S. Census records record that he personally enslaved eighty-four people in 1860, and that his firm, the A & J.R. Grist Company, had seventy-two enslaved workers.

Information about Grist can be found in NCpedia: https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/grist-allen

Processing information:

Processed by Rubenstein Library staff

Encoded by Alvin Pollock

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in the James Redding Grist Business Records are not known. For further information, please contact the Rubenstein Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], James Redding Grist Business Records, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m14k8d