| Scope and content |
A typescript memoir (1848-1898) provides accounts of Ferebee's life. The earliest entries discuss plantation life; the work and customs of slaves; and the responsibilities of the mistress of the plantation, including her obligations to slaves and her work at harvest time. Ferebee describes pre-war Norfolk, Va.; economic hardships caused by the war; the smuggling goods through Union lines around South Mills, N.C., and Norfolk, Va.; and his father's cavalry career. Post-war accounts describe civil unrest and the punishment inflicted upon freed slaves by officers of the Freedmen's Bureau in Oxford, N.C. Accounts concerning Ferebee's naval career include descriptions of the USS Portsmouth and life aboard the vessel; Hawaiians encountered during an 1875 cruise on the Portsmouth; the customs of the Alaskan Indians; the Alaskan countryside; Korean natives and their reaction to U.S. Naval personnel; and the Spanish-American War, including the destruction of the Maine in Havana Harbor and the Battle of Santiago Bay. Other materials include letters from members of the MacPherson, Gregory, and Ferebee families; a sketch of Ferebee's room aboard the USS Jamestown; grade reports; and Bible records for the Ferebee and MacPherson families. |
| Access restriction | No access restrictions. |
| Cite as |
Nelson M. Ferebee Papers (#404), Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. |
| Terms of use | Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of Miss Mary Howard. |
| Biographical note | Nelson Ferebee (b. 1849) was a member of a well-established Camden County, N.C., family. His father, a lawyer, maintained a substantial plantation with a large slave population. Ferebee graduated from the University of Maryland medical school in 1871, and in 1872 he enlisted in the Navy as an assistant surgeon. He served aboard the USS Portsmouth, USS Pensacola, USS Jamestown, USS Trenton, and USS Indiana. After the Spanish-American War, Ferebee was transferred to Washington Naval Yard, where he remained until his retirement in 1904. |
