LibGuides: History Vault: Southern Life and African American History, 1775–1915, Plantation Records, Part 1

Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantation Records

Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantation Records (Module 6)

The Plantation Records in this module documents the far-reaching impact of plantations on both the American South and the nation. As business owners, the commodities produced by plantation owners—rice, cotton, sugar, tobacco, hemp, and others— accounted for more than half of the nation’s exports. The plantation, therefore, played a key role in the development of a nationwide market economy. Plantation records also document the personal lives of plantation owners and their families.

Crops

Bringier family correspondence, June 1890-1895, including sugar cane harvest in Florida, sugar mill, social life, and typhoid fever
Louis Amadee Bringier Papers, 1786-1901, Ascension Parish, Louisiana
Harry Hammond Papers, crop notes and money matter, etc., January 1-December 31, 1865, covering personal debt and finances, cotton and corn crop, wages and deductions for agricultural laborers
Harry Hammond Papers, 1866-1913, Aiken County, South Carolina
Stephen Duncan Family, correspondence, 1863-1865, covering management of Duncan family plantations, including status of slaves, cotton production, cotton prices in Liverpool, England, and Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson
Stephen Duncan Family Papers, 1817-1877 [1863-1877], Adams County, Mississippi
Wood family tobacco prices and financial difficulties
Thomas Wood Family Papers, 1820-1888, Prince George's County, Maryland, MS. 1896, Business Correspondence

Civil War

Daniel William Cobb diary of agricultural practices at Cedar Lawn plantation, with Civil War observations
Includes observations on Civil War , including property damage by Northern forces.
James Minor Holladay at end of Civil War , oaths of allegiance and release from Point Lookout prison
Includes release as prisoner of war from Point Lookout Camp, Maryland.
William Gwathmey diary as planter and physician, with Civil War observations
Associated with Burlington and Wakefield plantations. Includes printed front and end matter of bound Richardson's Almanac diary, offering advice on agricultural management. Includes news of Civil War events, local troop movements, treatment of war wounded, sowing of rice, and brief military encampment at Burlington.

States

Alabama
Household supplies, slaves, and cotton crops on William Henry Tayloe plantations in Alabama. Includes inventories from Larkin, Adventure, Oakland, and Walnut Grove Plantations.
Georgia
Diseases and patients at the plantation hospital at Butler's Island, Georgia
Mississippi
Joseph D. Shields political writings, undated, covering public debt of state of Mississippi , Mississippi territorial government, Republican Party and Federalist Party, slavery, criticism of secession, slavery in U.S. territories, property rights, immigration to California, and slavery in District of Columbia.
South Carolina
Edmund Ruffin diary as agricultural surveyor of South Carolina , with observations on travel and agricultural practices in the state. Bound volume includes as clippings, several published letter to the editors of "The Mercury" and other newspapers on the amendment of soils with marl; summarizing his duties as Agricultural Surveyor for the State of South Carolina ; and descriptions of city of Charleston and its residents, of planters and plantations. Includes numerous survey sketches, including a detailed drawing of a rice plantation on the Edisto River, and a tipped-in engraving of Patrick Henry.
Texas
Civil War correspondence of Conner family and Texas plantation operations. Includes April 1 telegraph to General Bragg reporting that Confederate gunboat "Mobile" from Atchafalaya is coaling at Natchez en route to Memphis and asks if local guerrilla companies will likely be ordered out of the vicinity; Farar Conner's reports of newly established Rifle Point Plantation in Texas ; and prospects of federal capture of Vicksburg.

Family Lawsuits

Custis family lawsuits and legal instruments
Custis Family Papers, 1683-1858, Fairfax, James City, and New Kent Counties, Virginia.
Hodges family lawsuits and family and social life
Hodges Family Papers, 1788-1889, Jefferson County, Tennessee, Collection # 254 (Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University)
Weeks and Moore family plantation business, including sugar and molasses sales, and Moore family estate lawsuit
David Weeks and Family Papers (Mss. 528, 605), 1782-1957, Iberia Parish, Louisiana; also Mississippi, Papers. Includes stock certificate for the New Orleans, Opelousas & Great Western Railroad (p. 10).

Daily Life

Martha Forman daily life and plantation income and expenses following the death of her husband
Martha Forman Diaries, 1814-1860, Cecil County, Maryland, MS. 403
Stirling family health reports and daily life
Lewis Stirling and Family Papers, 1784-1865, West Feliciana, West Baton Rouge, and St. Mary Parishes, Louisiana
Sara L. Allain personal correspondence to her sister Annie L. Allain on family life and women's employment
Letters of daily life from Annie Allain to her older sister Sara Allain, including accounts of her employment and the independence of personal income; letters from Wakefield Plantation; and accounts of a trip north to New York City, West Point and Oxford, New York.
Susanna Warfield daily life and health
Susanna Warfield Diaries, 1845-1885, Carroll County, Maryland, MS. 760