Set forth below is a list of reference materials that should assist anyone interested in the history of Caswell County and the genealogy of its people. See also: Caswell County Annotated Bibliography.
If you have suggestions for this list, please send them to the Webmaster. If you are limited to only a few books, the first four listed and the abstracts compiled by Katharine Kerr Kendall are considered the "essentials." If the title of the publication appears as a link it is available for purchase or to view. Click on the link.
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Gatewood--Facing the White Canvas, David Caspers and Carlyle Poteat (2004)
In this revealing documentary, Yanceyville's own Maud Gatewood gives us the insight into the determination and creative process that have led to her becoming one of the most admired painters to emerge from the American South.
Thomas Day: African American Furniture Maker, Rodney Barfield and Patricia Marshall
African American master cabinetmaker Thomas Day (1801-1861), of Caswell County, North Carolina, had an outstanding career and achieved remarkable social standing during the state’s antebellum period. Day, a free black who lived in the Dan River town of Milton, was educated, owned property and slaves, ran a successful business that made furniture for some of the state’s most prosperous white citizens, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Milton. This paperback examines several aspects of Day’s notable life and career. Pp. 69, illus., index.
Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll (2010)
Biography
Dead-End Road, Deborah F. Brown (2004)
This book may be more aptly entitled, "Another Brown vs. Board of Education". It captures the historical, educational, and political events surrounding Jasper Brown and his struggles to integrate the public schools in Caswell County, North Carolina. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Jasper Brown, a God-fearing man, husband, father, and community leader, took a bold stand in pursuit of justice, freedom, and equality of education for his four children and other black children living in Caswell County. Starting in 1956, jasper, and other freedom lovers, through the auspices of the Caswell County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), sought desegregation of the Caswell County School System. After exhausting all administrative means to integrate the schools, Brown and others filed a lawsuit and embarked upon a bitter court battle. Six years later, the Federal 4th Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, ordered Caswell County officials to integrate the public schools. On January 22, 1963, the first day of school integration, Jasper shot two white men in self-defense and was arrested to stand trial. Ebony and Newsweek magazines ran stories about the shooting. During the trial, the late Honorable Thurgood E. Marshall assisted with Brown's defense. Although the challenge to segregation in Caswell County was successful, Brown and his family suffered humiliation, degradation, financial loss, and even threats to their lives. Yet, through it all, Jasper Brown and his family held fast to their faith and trust in God that His justice would prevail.
The Guilford County Literary and Historical Association, Vol. 1, Various Authors (1908)
This reference contains articles on people important to the history of Guilford County, North Carolina. Of particular interest to students of the history of Caswell County are the segments on Archibald Murphey and Bartlett Yancey, Jr..
The James Sprunt Historical Publications (Vol. 10, No. 2), J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton and Henry McGilbert Wagstaff, Editors (1911)
This reference contains articles on Bartlett Yancey, Jr. by George A. Anderson and J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, and a collection of letters written to Bartlett Yancey. The book was published by the The University of North Carolina Press and can be found from time to time in bookstores in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, area and through internet book brokers.
William Louis Poteat: Prophet of Progress, Suzanne Cameron Linder (1966)
Adventurers of Purse and Person Virginia 1607-1625, Annie Lash Jester and Martha Woodroof Hiden (1956)
Alexander Rose of Person County North Carolina and His Descendants, Ben Lacy Rose (1979)
While this most-excellent work does cover a Person County family, the history of that family is much intertwined with Caswell County. The Rose patriarch of the book's title, Alexander Rose (c. 1738-1807), married Eunice Lea, daughter of Captain William Lea and brother of John Lea, both early settlers of Caswell County. Moreover, Alexander Rose's son Duncan married the daughter of Reverend Hugh McAden, minister at Red House Presbyterian Church in Semora, Caswell County. Accordingly, the book is a valuable reference for anyone researching the history of Caswell County. While it is believed to be out-of-print, it is available in many libraries and does appear for sale from time to time in used book stores.
Burton Chronicles of Colonial Virginia, Francis Burton Harrison (1933)
Burton: Our Caswell County, North Carolina, Ancestry, Margaret Burton Woods (1978) [Out of Print]
California Sketches, O. P. Fitzgerald (1879)
California Sketches: Second Series, O. P. Fitzgerald (1891)
Descendants of a Foot-Warmer: Memories of a Rural Black Southern Family, Costello L. Brown, Ph.D. (2021)
The author, Dr. Costello L. Brown, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and former associate dean at Cal State LA, and a 5th-generation descendant of "Queen." Born in Caswell County, North Carolina, he is a graduate of Caswell County Training School, Hampton University, and Iowa State University. Dr. Brown is a former Program Director and Division Director at the National Science Foundation. He is a son of much beloved Caswell County teacher Helen Bigelow Brown (1915-1974). This book tells the story of the Brown family of Caswell County, NC, and their journey over four generations, captured in short stories, vignettes and whimsical narrative glimpses. The Brown family's journey began two generations earlier with my grandmother's grandmother, Queen Evans, who was kidnapped in Africa and brought to North Carolina as a slave on a plantation of a White slave owner. One of the many duties of Queen, the seven-year-old enslaved girl, was to serve as a "Foot-Warmer."
Graves—Twelve Generations (Some Descendants and Kin (1608-1977), Louise Graves (1977)
Josias and Michael Dickson: Lunenburg County, VA, and Caswell County, NC, Gordon Burns Smith (2003) [Out of Print]
Report of Research on The Lea Family in Virginia & North Carolina Before 1800, Ben L. Rose (1984)
This well-researched 158-page book is a must for those researching the Lea family in Caswell and Person Counties. Ben L. Rose, himself a Lea descendant, has done a masterful job unscrambling the various James, John, William, and Thomas Leas. Note that seventeen men with the surname Lea signed the petition seeking to create Caswell County (separate from Orange County), and that three of these had the given name James! While this book is believed to be out-of-print, it occasionally becomes available in used book stores and may be in local library collections.
Robert Graves of Anson County, N.C., and Chesterfield County, S.C., Ancestors and Descendants, Kenneth Vance Graves ( )
Sunset Views (In Three Parts), Bishop O. P. Fitzgerald (1900)
The Beaver Pond Neals of Virginia, Carl B. Neal (1965)
The Dennis and Tennison families of Caswell County, North Carolina, Sue Green (1994) [Out of Print]
The Stamps Family History and Lineage, William T. Stamps ( )
Marriage Records
Caswell County, North Carolina Marriage Bonds 1778-1868, Katharine Kerr Kendall (1983)
Caswell County, North Carolina Marriage Records 1778-1876, Frances T. Ingmire (1984)
Marriage and Death Notices From Raleigh, N.C. Newspapers 1796-1826, Rev. Silas Emmett Lucas, Jr. (1977)
Confederate Soldiers of Pittsylvania County and Danville, Mike K. Williams ( )
Greene and Cornwallis: The Campaign in the Carolinas, Hugh F. Rankin (1976)
North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster (Limited Reprint Edition), North Carolina Office of Archives and History
As one of its projects to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Civil War, the North Carolina Confederate Centennial Commission initiated, and the North Carolina Office of Archives and History has continued, the compilation and publication of a new, comprehensive roster of all North Carolinians who served during the war. Published under the title of North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster, this series, when completed, will comprise eighteen individually indexed volumes, each of which will be approximately 600 pages in length and contain the names and service records of approximately 7,000 soldiers. A nineteenth volume, a master index to the entire series, will list the names of approximately 125,000 military personnel and the volumes and pages on which their service records appear.
Service Record Book of Men and Women of Yanceyville, N.C. [WWII], and Community, Sponsored by the V.F.W. Post no. 7316 (1948)
North Carolina
A New Voyage to Carolina, John Lawson (1967)(UNC Press)(originally published 1709)
Abstracts of Letters of Resignations of Militia Officers in North Carolina 1779-1840, Timothy Kearney (1992)
Agriculture in North Carolina Before the Civil War, Cornelius O. Cathey (1966)
Colonial North Carolina: A History, Hugh T. Lefler and William S. Powell (1973)
Guide to North Carolina Highway Historical Markers, Ninth Edition, Michael Hill, Editor (2001)
North Carolina: A History (New Preface and Concluding Chapter), William S. Powell (1977, 1988)
North Carolina Taxpayers 1679-1790, Clarence Ratcliffe (2002)
Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians, John H. Wheeler (1884)
This older reference contains a chapter on Caswell County with brief descriptions of Richard Caswell, Bartlett Yancey, Romulus Saunders, Bedford Brown, Robert Williams, Calvin Graves, Jacob Thompson, John Kerr, and others. While out-of-print for many years, reprints occasionally are found through used book sellers.
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography (Six Volumes), William S. Powell, Editor (1979-1996)
Federal Census North Carolina (1820)(Supplemented with Tax Lists), Dorothy Williams Potter (1974)
History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina, William Byrd (1929)
North Carolina and the Coming of the Civil War, William C. Harris (1988)
North Carolina During Reconstruction, Richard L. Zuber (1969)
North Carolina Through Four Centuries, William S. Powell (1989)
Piedmont Plantation, Jean Bradley Anderson (1985) (History of the Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina)
Sherman's March through North Carolina--A Chronology, Wilson Angley, Jerry L. Cross, and Michael Hill (1995)
State Census of North Carolina 1784-1787, Mrs. Alvaretta Kenan Register (1971)
The American Indian in North Carolina, Douglas L. Rights (John F. Blair, Publisher, 1957)
The North Carolina Experience: An Interpretive and Documentary History, Lindley S. Butler and Alan D. Watson (1984)
The North Carolina Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Tar Heel Places, William S. Powell (1968)
The Way We Lived in North Carolina, Joe A. Mobley, Editor (2003)
The Trading Path to the Indians, Douglas L. Rights, North Carolina Historical Review, Volume VIII, page 403 (1931)
Reconstruction
A Fool's Errand: A Novel of the South During Reconstruction, Albion W. Tourgee (1879)
An Appeal to Caesar [The Negro Problem], Albion W. Tourgee (1884)
Carpetbagger's Crusade: The Life of Albion Winegar Tourgee, Otto H. Olsen (1965)
Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina, Manly Wade Wellman (1954)
Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina, Manly Wade Wellman (1990) [Includes the killing of John W. Stephens]
Kirk's Raiders: A Notorious Band of Scoundrels and Thieves, Matthew Bumgarner (2000)
No suspect was indicted or tried for the death of North Carolina state senator John Walter Stephens in the Caswell County courthouse; but the Ku Klux Klan rid itself of a troublesome adversary and precipitated a showdown between the state's old guard and Governor William Woods Holden. Follow this little-known tale from the killing, through the "Kirk-Holden War," through the courts and to the finale, when Governor Holden was impeached and removed from office. Newspaper reporter and historical columnist Jim Wise takes us beyond the final days of the Civil War in North Carolina, amidst the destruction and poverty and debt, to chronicle the men whose clashing agendas and personalities shaped a violent era and laid foundations for the Jim Crow century to come.
North Carolina During Reconstruction, Richard L. Zuber (1969)
The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America, Wyn Craig Wade (2005)
This book may be more aptly entitled, "Another Brown vs. Board of Education". It captures the historical, educational, and political events surrounding Jasper Brown and his struggles to integrate the public schools in Caswell County, North Carolina. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Jasper Brown, a God-fearing man, husband, father, and community leader, took a bold stand in pursuit of justice, freedom, and equality of education for his four children and other black children living in Caswell County. Starting in 1956, jasper, and other freedom lovers, through the auspices of the Caswell County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), sought desegregation of the Caswell County School System. After exhausting all administrative means to integrate the schools, Brown and others filed a lawsuit and embarked upon a bitter court battle. Six years later, the Federal 4th Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, ordered Caswell County officials to integrate the public schools. On January 22, 1963, the first day of school integration, Jasper shot two white men in self-defense and was arrested to stand trial. Ebony and Newsweek magazines ran stories about the shooting. During the trial, the late Honorable Thurgood E. Marshall assisted with Brown's defense. Although the challenge to segregation in Caswell County was successful, Brown and his family suffered humiliation, degradation, financial loss, and even threats to their lives. Yet, through it all, Jasper Brown and his family held fast to their faith and trust in God that His justice would prevail.
The First State University: A Pictorial History of The University of North Carolina, William S. Powell (1972)
Their Highest Potential--An African American School Community in the Segregated South, Vanessa Siddle Walker (1996)
A History of African Americans in North Carolina, Jeffrey J. Crow, Paul D. Escott, Flora J. Hatley (1992)
All the Forgotten Places, Hunter James (1981)
Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina: From the Colonial Period to About 1820, Paul Heinegg (2005)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs (2001)
My Folks Don't Want Me to Talk About Slavery, Belinda Hurmence, Editor (1984) (Twenty-One Oral Histories of Former North Carolina Slaves)
Narrative of My Escape From Slavery, Moses Roper (1838, 2003) [Moses Roper was born in Caswell County.]
North Carolina Slave Narratives, William L. Andrews, General Editor (2005) [Includes Moses Roper]
Refugees From Slavery: Autobiographies of Fugitive Slaves in Canada, Benjamin Drew, Editor (1969)
Tax Records
Caswell County, North Carolina Tax Lists 1777, 1780, & 1784, T.L.C. Genealogy
This is only a partial list of the many excellent reference materials relevant to the history of Caswell County and the genealogy of its people. If you have suggestions for this list, please submit them to the Webmaster.