The name "Nowlin" rang a loud bell with me.  Samuel Nowlin bought and sold
tobacco in Lynchburg and handled general merchandise.  I came across him in
the papers of the Hairston family. Nowlin and the Hairstons did business at
least from 1833 (perhaps earlier -- 1833 is the earliest date I found) until
1853 when there was a break alluded to in a letter of July 24, 1853 to Ruth
S. Hairston ("Dear GrandMa") from George Hairston in Lynchburg -- "Mr.
Samuel Nowlin has been turned out the Church since you dismissed him from
your business."

Much of the correspondence regards tobacco sales and involves very large
sums (S. Nowlin & Sons statement to Samuel Hairston for his tobacco sales
July 13 to December 31, 1839 -- $14,795.28.). But there is no mention of
slave trading.  It has been rumored that Samuel Hairston sold many slaves
from his plantations near Danville but I never found any evidence of it.
 I'd be curious to know if the name Hairston turns up in those Nowlin slave
trading letters.

The Nowlin letters are a very important discovery and I hope the VHS makes
them available soon.

Henry Wiencek
Charlottesville

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