Call Number:

C1628

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

1 box

Language:

English

Date:

1829-1850 (inclusive)

Creator:

Hooe family

Form:

Correspondence -- 19th century and Receipts. -- 19th century

Abstract:

Consists of a small collection of correspondence and documents belonging to the Hooe family of Prince William County, Virginia, primarily concerning the hire and recapture of African Americans whom they enslaved on their plantation in the mid-19th century.

The Hooe family were of Welsh descent and settled in colonial Virginia in the mid-17th century. In the late 18th century, Bernard Hooe acquired land in Prince William County, Virginia, and established a house and plantation called Hazel Plain, the remains of which later became part of the battlefield of Manassas. Other members of the Hooe family owned property nearby in Brentsville, Yorkshire, and Centerville, Virginia. Various family members, including John Hooe, Jr., held dozens of enslaved laborers on their plantations from the 17th through the mid-19th century.

Consists of a small collection of correspondence and documents belonging to the Hooe family of Prince William County, Virginia, primarily concerning the hire and recapture of African Americans whom they enslaved on their plantation in the mid-19th century. Materials primarily relate to John Hooe, Jr., and James H. Reid, who was the administrator of Hooe's estate following his death. Other family members' names that appear in the documents include Bernard Hooe, Mary D. Hooe, and Dade Hooe. The majority of the collection consists of receipts, agreements, and correspondence related to the hire of enslaved laborers to neighboring plantation owners, as well as related taxes. Additional correspondence regards efforts to recapture enslaved people who had liberated themselves from the Hooes' plantation; these include letters from a Philadelphia lawyer and a Hampshire County (West Virginia) jailer about men purported to have escaped from the Hooes' plantation. There are also legal documents pertaining to a property dispute between John Hooe, Jr., and William Courtney, which contain inventories listing the names of enslaved people.

As no original order was discernible, materials were arranged by type/genre.