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Col. William Sylvester Carter (approximately 1833-1902) was a white Confederate plantation owner, businessman, and state representative from Fairfield in Hyde County, N.C. Collection contains correspondence, legal and financial papers, and account books from the Carter, Howard, and Spencer families of Hyde County, North Carolina. The ledger books largely relate to William and David Carter's plantations and crops, particularly corn, and also contain expenses and accounts for different Hyde County residents, including enslaved and later emancipated African Americans, throughout the mid-ninteenth century. Correspondence and legal papers in the collection largely relate to the estate management, land, farming, and business or trading expenses for the Carter family. Some materials relate to the American Civil War.