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.