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James Cathcart Johnston was one of North Carolina's most prosperous planters during the Antebellum period. Johnston owned the Hayes Plantation in Edenton, which he inherited from his father, Samuel Johnston, the first senator from North Carolina and governor of the state from 1787 to 1789. His father also left Johnston a fine collection of books that he enlarged significantly over the years. The collection of books includes nearly 2,000 volumes, dating from the late 1500s to the 1860s. In the decades prior to the Civil War, the collection at Hayes was among the largest libraries in North Carolina. J ames, who never married, made his vast holdings the lifelong focus of his attention. He spent most of his time managing his estates and adding to his father's fortune. By the 1860s he owned many thousands of acres worked by hundreds of slaves. Johnston was a contributing member of the American Colonization Society, a group which believed in repatriating slaves back to Africa.A t his death in 1865, Johnston bequeathed the Hayes Plantation to a trusted business associate, Edward Wood, whose descendants still own the property. The photographs in this exhibit come from a reproduction of the Hayes Plantation library found in the North Carolina Collection Gallery on the UNC-CH campus. The digitized original documents were provided by the Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, UNC-CH.* Also of note in the Johnston family tree is James Iredell, brother-in-law of Governor Johnston, and the political leader of the Edenton community for many years. After distinguished service to his country during the Revolutionary War, Iredell was appointed by George Washington to the Supreme Court of the United States. His opinions were famous in the field of jurisprudence and he was considered one of the outstanding jurists of his time. |
