C. W. Hollowell Family Papers, PC.5028

[Identification of item], PC.5028, C. W. Hollowell Family Papers, Outer Banks History Center, Manteo, N.C., U.S.A.

The C. W. Hollowell Family Papers, 1853-1997 and undated (bulk 1853-1947), contains personal and business papers relating to various members of the Hollowell and Gatling families. Included in the collection is correspondence, receipts, accounts of sales, insurance documents, records relating to the acquisition of the Nags Head Hotel, correspondence to Parthenia Gatling Hollowell and Margaret Hollowell, genealogical notes compiled by Margaret Hollowell, newspaper clippings and ephemeral items such as wedding invitations and graduation announcements.

Of note in the collection are three documents relating to numerous Black men and women who were enslaved by the Hollowell family at their Bayside Plantation. These consist of two account books kept by C.W. Hollowell, one of which tracks payments made to formerly enslaved men and/or their sons who apparently worked for Hollowell in the 1880s. A second account book logs "Women's tasks," most of which focuses on cotton, wool, and other textile-related work products contributed by women enslaved by the Hollowells. It is unclear whether these materials were picked or processed by the women or recorded for another purpose. Included in this book is a list of enslaved men who received new stockings in 1859-1860 and a note reflecting four months of houskeeping services by "Mrs. Casa" in 1856, for which she was paid $4 per month. A third document is a list of names compiled by Margaret Hollowell sometime around the 1930s, which she indicates refer to formerly enslaved people and "sons of the old slaves" who were paid by her father to continue working after the Civil War ended, even, as Margaret Hollowell notes, "those almost too feeble and old."

Christopher Wilson (C. W.) Hollowell (1821-1892) was born in Perquimans County, North Carolina but moved to Pasquotank County to manage the plantations of his cousin, John Hollowell and James C. Johnston, owner of Hayes plantation. He later built the plantation house "Bayside" for his first wife Alpine Douglas Bodine (1830-1867), whom he married in 1855. The house still stands on Weeksville Road, south of Elizabeth City. Four children were born to this union. The Hollowells were enslavers, and according to the 1860 census, C.W. Hollowell forced about 40 Black men, women, and children to work on the Bayside plantation until the Civil War ended. Many of these formerly enslaved individuals remained on the plantation as Hollowell's employees after the war, despite many of them being "almost too old and feeble" to continue working.

In 1870, Hollowell married Parthenia Weeks Gatling (1848-1937) of Perquimans County and they proceeded to have five children. In addition to planting, one of Hollowell's business interests included the Nags Head Hotel in Nags Head, North Carolina.

1. Correspondence, 1856-1946 and undated

2. Business Papers, 1853-1939 and undated

3. Personal Papers, 1859-1997 and undated

Purchased by the Outer Banks History Center Associates from Joe Woolard in 1996.