William D. Valentine Diary

William D. Valentine was born in Hertford County, N.C. in 1806. He contracted a debilitating disease at the age of 13 that left him permanently disabled. After a brief stint as a grammar-school teacher in 1837, he became a lawyer, practicing in the courts of Hertford, Bertie, Gates, and Northampton counties in northeastern North Carolina. Valentine never married, and he spent the greater part of his life living at Oaklawn, his father's plantation just outside the village of Bethel, N.C. The collection is William D. Valentine's multi-volume diary with entries touching on on almost every aspect of public life of the area, including his evaluations of the personalities and characters of his fellow attorneys and judges. Fascinated by politics, he wrote in much detail of events on both the local and state level. Other subjects include the activities of the local Baptist and Methodist churches, especially the establishment of female colleges in the area; slaves and free blacks; the local fishing industry; local opinions on national politics; farming practices; gossip and scandals.