Century Fellowship Society: Correspondence and Meeting Minutes, 1852-1916

File — Box: 2, Folder: 4

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Holloway Family Scrapbook contains legal documents, personal and business correspondence, receipts, ephemera, clippings and photographs pertaining to the Holloway family, a prominent free family of color in Charleston, SC. Series 1: "The Scrapbook," holds a variety of documents: Highlights include legal documents with deeds (1806, 1821, 1871), a conveyance (1811), slave bills of sale including one for the slave "Betty" (1829), an agreement (1829) to apprentice the slave boy Carlos in the carpenters and house joiner's trade, exhorter licenses to preach and a photograph of a 1797 document declaring patriarch Richard “Holliday” [Holloway] a free mulatto. Personal and business correspondence include letters concerning the hiring out of slaves, an offer (1837) to buy the "Holloway Negroes,” a letter (1831) from Samuel Benedict about emigrating to Liberia, agreements for carpentry work, and information about the Brown Fellowship Society, the Century Fellowship Society, the Minors Moralist Society and the Bonneau Literary Society. Also included are invitations, Confederate and corporate tax receipts, receipts for general merchandise, and Confederate scrip. Other letters and newspaper clippings, including letters to the editor written by James H. Holloway, concern Negro taxes, Negro slaveholders, the Liberia movement, the Methodist Episcopal Church, civil rights and related topics. James H. Holloway's niece, Mae Holloway Purcell, preserved the scrapbook after his death and added to its contents. The bound scrapbook was microfilmed by the South Caroliniana Library in 1977 but was later disbound and reorganized. Using the microfilm as a guide, this archive attempts to recreate the original order and this digital presentation of the scrapbook reflects those efforts.

Dates

Creation: 1852-1916

Creator

From the Collection: Holloway, James H. (James Harrison), 1849-1913 (Person)
From the Collection: Purcell, Mae Holloway, 1891-1982 (Person)

Extent

From the Collection: 4.0 linear feet (3 oversize boxes)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Materials Specific Details

Draft of letter (1852) from black leaders of Trinity Church to white Board of Trustees asking them not to sell the burial ground on Pitt Street, originally purchased for the burial of black members.

Newspaper clippings (circa 1906) of the history and activities of the Century Fellowship Society, and black slave owners, with obituaries of Thomas M. Holmes, Society president and member of 76 years, and Amy Lattimer.

Note (1873) for payment of steward, Samuel Oakes, by the Brown, later Century, Fellowship society.

News clippings (ca. 1906) regarding the history and activities of Century Fellowship Society; Death notices (1916) for Samuel H. Holloway noting the many societies of which he was a member.

Broadside (1904) and news clippings from the Century Fellowship Society celebrating the laying of a cornerstone for a new hall building,and requests for funds, including an article authored by James Holloway on the positives of the Brown Fellowship Society, with mention of providing funds for upbringing of orphan Daniel Payne;