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This series includes records relating to the assets and debts of the bankrupt, the actions of the court and the Register in Bankruptcy, and the final disposition of the case. A typical case file normally contains the petition, schedule of debts, a list of the names and addresses of creditors, and a record of the amount due; inventories of real and personal property, proof of publication of bankruptcy notices, notices to creditors, oaths of assignees, orders of reference, orders of bankruptcy, final discharges, and related papers filed in bankruptcy proceedings.  The list below are only bankruptcies from Currituck County.  These case files are not yet available online.

In the United States, Bankruptcy Laws were enacted in response to poor economic conditions and were usually temporary. The first official bankruptcy law was enacted in 1800 in response to land speculation, but was repealed just three years later. This happened again in 1841, when the second bankruptcy law was passed in response to the panic of 1837. It, too, was repealed, just two years later. In 1867 Congress passed another bankruptcy law after the Civil War, which was repealed in 1878.  The first two laws allowed for a minimal discharge of debts, and the last law did allow for corporation protection.

Following the Civil War, a significant wave of bankruptcies in the United States, particularly impacting the South, was primarily caused by the devastation of the Southern economy due to the war, including the destruction of infrastructure, the loss of enslaved labor, and the subsequent reliance on a struggling sharecropping system combined with rapid inflation and the "Panic of 1873" led to widespread financial hardship and business failures, especially among former plantation owners and related industries.  [See the 1867 Voter List for Currituck County to see which district they voted in.]