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[Identification of item], Charles N. Hunter Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
The Charles N. Hunter Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as a gift in 1941.
Processed by Colby Bogie, Jessica Carew, and Carrie Mills.
Encoded by Colby Bogie, Jessica Carew, and Carrie Mills.
Updated to include digital content by Noah Huffman, April 2013
The complete 1941 accession is represented in this finding aid.
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
Charles Norfleet Hunter was born of slave parentage in the early 1850s in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hunter was the son of artisan Osborne Hunter, slave of William Dallas Haywood, a member of one of Raleigh’s most prominent families. Hunter’s mother died when he was three and he was raised by an aunt. Hunter was prominent in efforts to provide better educational facilities and curriculum for African Americans in North Carolina and was instrumental in constructing several schools for African Americans in the state. He served as principal for many schools in the state and served as editor of several newspapers and publications. As a member of the North Carolina Industrial Association, he also sought to expand the opportunities for African Americans in agriculture and industry.
The Charles N. Hunter Papers date from the 1850s to 1932 and consist of Hunter's personal and professional correspondence, scrapbooks of clippings, articles, reports, and memorabilia. Correspondence relates to personal and financial matters, as well as to Hunter's various activities to improve African American education and economic well-being, particularly in the South. Specific topics touched on throughout his papers include race relations, voting rights, creating an educational system for African Americans, the temperance movement, reconstruction, African American business and agriculture, the North Carolina Industrial Association, and the North Carolina Negro State Fair. The three correspondence subseries form almost half of the
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Arranged into the following series and subseries: Personal and Professional Papers Series, organized into the following subseries: Business/Community Incoming Correspondence, Personal Incoming Correspondence, Outgoing Correspondence, Writings and Speeches, and Other Professional Papers) and Scrapbooks.
These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.
The papers of Charles N. Hunter are divided into five subseries: Incoming Business/Community Correspondence; Incoming Personal Correspondence; Outgoing Correspondence; Writings and Speeches; and Other Professional Papers.
This subseries contains a variety of correspondence that reflects the wide array of community and business organizations with which Hunter associated. There is a significant amount of material concerning the education of blacks in rural North Carolina during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including letters from the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wake County, Zebulon Judd, and Edward Moses. Contains material demonstrating Hunter's instrumental role in the North Carolina Industrial Association, which was responsible for organizing the N.C. Negro State Fairs in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Correspondence from each of the three founders of North Carolina Mutual (J. Merrick, A.M. Moore, and C.C. Spaulding), and this collection includes material regarding early business practices within N.C. Mutual. Hunter often wrote to a wide variety of government officials, and received letters from senators, representatives, and heads of departments (not limited to Sen. Blache K. Bruce [1879, 1886], Franklin D. Roosevelt [1920] and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. [1921][as Asst. Secretaries of the Navy]). Hunter also kept up frequent correspondence with the presidents of North Carolina's historically black colleges and universities, such as Shaw University, Negro Agricultural and Technical College of N.C. (currently N.C. A & T University), State Normal School of North Carolina (currently the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and St. Augustine's College. Contains material demonstrating Hunter's efforts as an advocate for black agricultural laborers, as well as his political efforts to encourage black voter turnout, census enumeration, and the outcomes of U.S. Senate confirmations of presidential appointments. This subseries also includes correspondence from Booker T. Washington [1886, 1909, 1914] regarding funding for black schools, John H. Smyth [1879](U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia) following a request for a contribution to the N.C. Negro State Fair, and W.E.B. DuBois [1898] soliciting help in an upcoming sociological study, among many others.
Contains a large quantity of incoming correspondence from family, friends, and former students, including significant correspondence with nephew, Edward Hunter, and daughters, as well as Hunter's son-in-law and former minister, James K. Satterwhite. Also contains some material pertaining to personal financial matters.
[Restricted: needs conservation work before access can be granted. Please contact reference archivist for access to this item.]
Contains various drafts of letters written by Hunter to various individuals. Includes drafts of letters to Mary Church Terrell, U.S. presidents, and North Carolina education administrators.
A variety of papers such as pamphlets, programs, receipts, gradebooks and other school records, and ephemera such as program tickets and invitations. The earliest item dated in the 1850s is a blank slave life insurance application from the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (Raleigh, N.C.). Also of note is the fourth edition of a slave narrative attributed to former slave Lunsford Lane of Raleigh, N.C., originally published in 1841. Many of the documents relate to the N.C. Negro State Fair. Includes biographical sketches of Hunter, as well as papers concerning the 1907 Jamestown Negro Exhibit and the N.C. Industrial Association. Documents are sorted chronologically and foldered by decade within the boxes.
Contains a varied assemblage of lectures, addresses, reports, biographical sketches, obituaries, and other compositions, chiefly written by Charles Hunter. Unless otherwise indicated, the author is Hunter. When possible, original titles are transcribed and dates are given. Arranged in alphabetical order by title.
Topics include a brief history of the North Carolina Negro State Fair and funding for the Berry O'Kelly School. Other speeches feature historical facts of Raleigh and topics of racial uplift. Speeches addressed to the Constitutional Convention of North Carolina, the North Carolina legislature, local schools and school systems, members of the Howard Band of Hope, the Union Brothers and Victor Fire Company, the National Negro Business League, and the Right Worthy Grand Ledge of North Carolina among others.
Untitled essays cover African American history nationally, in the South, and in North Carolina.
Seventeen scrapbooks containing clippings and other items concerning race relations and other social, political, and economic affairs pertaining to African Americans. Assembled by Charles Hunter, they were taken chiefly from newspapers published in North Carolina, but their scope is national as well as regional and local. A wide range of topics and views are represented in the clippings, which include editorials from across the political spectrum (including both views with which Hunter was likely sympathetic and some with which he almost certainly was not); news articles about criminal accusations against African Americans and the lynchings and mob violence that often followed; accounts of North Carolina Negro State Fairs and various exhibitions and events for and about African Americans; articles describing the opening ceremonies and commencement speeches at African American high-schools and colleges; a number of articles and letters to the editor written by Charles N. Hunter himself, generally expressing his views on race relations; many articles about local, state, and national politics, particularly concerning the role of African Americans in state and national politics (and especially focusing on the disenfranchisement of African Americans in Southern states); and various religious, inspirational, and motivational texts - along with a great deal of other material relating to the African American experience at the turn of the 20th century.
The original scrapbooks have been disbound and photocopies have been made of all the clippings. The copies have been arranged chronologically for ease of use. Copies of the indices to the original scrapbooks - detailing the arrangement of the clippings in their original context - have also been retained.
Many of the clippings were pasted onto ledger sheets that had previously been used for Hunter's school and financial records. Some pages of these records were still intact and legible. These records have also been preserved and are included in this series. The news clippings date from 1866-1932 (with some undated entries organized by topic); the financial and school records to which they were pasted date from 1886-1913.
Photocopies of the pages of clippings from Hunter's scrapbooks. Whenever possible, these copies should be used instead of the originals.
The original pages from Hunter's disbound scrapbooks.
[Access RESTRICTED due to fragile nature. Use copies available in boxes 7-8.]