Plantations
This guide describes manuscript collections documenting plantation society and economy in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU. The plantation records and personal papers of planters, factors, merchants, and others whose livelihood came from plantations provide a wealth of documentation supporting research in plantation economy, slavery, and the social history of Southern landholding elites.
The collections described below touch upon all facets of plantation life. They include the papers of tutors, preachers, lawyers, and doctors who provided services to planters. They include the letters of Northerners who visited plantations in the antebellum period and wrote home about them, and those of Union soldiers who marched past plantations and sometimes plundered them. While the majority of collections are from the prewar years, there are substantial holdings on postbellum plantations as well. The sugar and cotton plantation records in LLMVC are among its most noteworthy and famed collections, and among the earliest collections that LSU acquired.
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Barrow, Abram Feltus and Family. Papers, 1804-1982. 6 linear ft. Location: 7:60-62, G:11, OS:B, Vault:1, Vault:36. The Barrow family moved to Nuevo Feliciana (now in Louisiana) in 1799 and built several plantation houses there. Papers document the business interests of the Barrow family and their involvement with various fraternal orders. Records of the People's Bank, St. Francisville, and the Creole Oil and Mineral Co. reflect the involvement of the Barrow and Leake families. Photographs depict family members and fraternal gatherings. Also included are records of St. John's Church, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3696, 3745. |
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Barrow, Bartholomew, 1836-1869. Family collection of sheet music, 1848-1891 (bulk 1861-1874). 4 items, 3 vols. Location: Range 65. Planter of Eldorado Plantation, a sugar plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. Collection of bound and loose vocal and piano sheet music collected by Barrow and his family. Some compositions in French, German, and Italian. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1379. |
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Barrow, Bennet H. Diary, 1833-1846. 1 volume. Location: Vault:9, W:24, Mss. Mf.:B. Cotton planter and owner of Highland Plantation in West Feliciana Parish, La. Diary reflects the management of Highland Plantation. Entries offer information on the cotton crop, weather conditions, personal activities, and treatment of slaves, specifically discipline and health care. Included are slave lists giving names and birth dates, and some financial records. Original volume housed in vault. Please use microfilm or typed transcription. Mss. 2978-2014. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, African Americans
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Barrow, W. M. and family. Papers, 1847-1874, undated. 0.1 linear ft. Location: U:7. St. Francisville, Louisiana, merchant. Letters by Willie Macajah Barrow (1810-1853) and Civil War diary and letters of his son, Willie Macajah Barrow (1843-1863) reflecting economic and family life on a plantation in West Feliciana Parish. Available on microfilm 5322: University Publications of America Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations Series I, Part 4, Reel 6. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 574. |
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Bass-Farrar Family Papers, 1827-1918, undated (bulk 1830-1867). 0.5 linear ft. Location: R:41, OS:B, VAULT:1. Papers of the Bass, Farrar, and Richardson families from Tensas Parish, La., and vicinity. Primarily includes correspondence, legal documents, and financial records related to family matters, plantation management, life along the Mississippi River, the Civil War, and slavery. Mss. 4907. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Women, New Orleans in the Civil War, Civil War, African Americans, Natchez, Mississippi
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Batchelor family papers, 1852-1922. 124 items (on microfilm). Location:Mss. Mf.:B. Papers are comprised of family letters, plantation and business papers, family succession papers, and material related to an Episcopal Church. A letter from Sarah E. Archer describes a Jewish wedding, ca. 1901. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1293. |
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Batchelor, Albert A. (Albert Agrippa). Papers, 1852-1930 (bulk 1870-1900). 27 linear ft., 41 volumes. Location: S:143-170, J:13, 98:B, OS:B. Personal and business papers, correspondence, diaries, and account books pertain principally to local events, and the operation and management of several plantations in Pointe Coupee Parish, including Bella Vista Plantation, Lakeside Plantation, Phoenix Plantation, Highland Plantation, and Normandy Plantation. Early letters among Batchelor family members describe conditions at the Kentucky Military Institute and the Silliman Female Collegiate Institute, and mention events such as slave insurrections and military operations. Several letters describe Civil War battles, including the 1862 Battle of Kernstown and the 1863 battles of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville. Available on microfilm 5735 and 6061: Records of southern plantations from emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Selections from Louisiana State University, pt. 5, Louisiana sugar plantations, reels 1-15; Confederate Military Manuscripts, Series B, Holdings of Louisiana State University, reels 1-2. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 919. |
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Batchelor, Ruth Ker. Batchelor-Nutt collection, 1835-1960. 24 items, 2 vols. Location: B:46, F:16. James Batchelor was a planter and legislator of Amite County, Mississippi. Rushwell Nutt, his father-in-law, of Laurel Hill Plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi, was a planter, physician, scientist, and world traveler. Collection includes papers, photographs, and ephemera of the Nutt and Batchelor families and the Davenport family of Louisiana. Letters include local and family news, and one letter describes teaching in Texas schools. Included are trade card scrapbooks of 19th century companies, and an article (1960) on Beech Grove Plantation in Amite County, Mississippi. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3018. |
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Bateman, Mannah W. Family Papers, 1840-1879. 439 items on 1 microfilm reel. Location: Mss.Mf:B. Louisiana planter of Avalon Plantation. Correspondence, receipts, legal papers, and other items related to Mannah W. Bateman and family, and to their management of Avalon. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3332. Referenced in Guides: Plantations
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Bateman, Mary. Diary, 1856. 1 vol. [typed transcripts]. Location: M:19. Young girl living with relatives at Argyle Plantation, near Greenville, Mississippi. Diary gives personal observations of local plantation social life. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 661. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Women
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Bayou Attanobe land grant, 1828. 1 item. Location: E:Imprints. Official printed pamphlet giving the report of The Committee on Public Lands...on the case of Ebenezer Cooley; a land dispute concerning a plot on the Mississippi River in Louisiana settled as an indigo plantation in 1767. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3365. Referenced in Guides: Plantations
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Beech Grove Plantation house photograph. 1 item. Location: 32:81. Mss. 4048. Referenced in Guides: Plantations
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Beech Grove Plantation home photograph, circa 1900-1950. 1 photographic print. Location: 65:5. This photograph is a copy print of the Beech Grove Plantation home near St. Gabriel, La. Mss. 4048. Referenced in Guides: Plantations
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Behrnes, J. P. (J. Polite), b. 1829. Journal, 1853-1893 (bulk 1853-1880). 1 v. Location: Misc. This journal of J.P. Behrnes of Irene Plantation in East Baton Rouge Parish, La., records rains; temperatures; and the planting, cultivation, harvesting, and yields of cotton and other crops. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4335. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Civil War
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Belmont Plantation scrip, undated 8 items. Location: Misc.:B. Plantation in Iberia Parish, Louisiana. Scrip money used in exchange for merchandise at the plantation store. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2584. Referenced in Guides: Plantations
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Bennett, Ezra. Family Papers, 1818-1881. 217 items [on microfilm]. Location: Mss.Mf:B. Planter and storekeeper of Cheneyville, Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Papers include letters written from Port Hudson and Camp Pratt, Louisiana, during the Civil War. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2896. |
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Bennett, George W. Account books and papers, 1838-1917. 16 linear ft., 346 vols. Location: W:71-87, 89; O:6-13; OS:B. Merchant, postmaster, sugar and cotton planter of Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Papers records comprised of correspondence, ledgers, daybooks, journals, receipts, leases, agreements, labor contracts with freedmen, invoice books, record books, stock inventories, and other items relating to Bennett's commercial interests. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1010. |
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Benson family. Papers, 1775-1969, undated. 2,790 items, 27 volumes (on 11 microfilm reels). Location: E:105, MSS.MF:B. Cotton planters of DeSoto Parish, Louisiana. Letters, documents, and plantation diaries reflect plantation economy, the administration of secondary schools, the history and administration of the Baptist Church, and civilian and military participation in the Civil War. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2424, 2440. |
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Berbice Colony slave records, 1826-1827. 3 items, 1 microfilm reel. Location: OS:B, Mss.Mf:B. Deed of arrangement between owners of three sugar plantations in Berbice (Guyana), and lists of slaves attached to the plantations as of October 20, 1826, citing names, ages, employment, places of birth, and distinguishing marks. Also listed are children born to slave mothers on the plantations (1819-1826) with names, dates of birth, ages, and names of mothers noted. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2934. |
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Bertrand, Charles, Jr. Papers, 1866-1928. 728 items, 38 ms. vols. and 1 printed vol. Location: UU:141, H:14. Planter of Cloutierville, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Business papers and records of Charles Bertrand, Jr., and family documents (1676-1884) of members of the family in Couches-les-Mines, France. Partly in French. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 840, 867, 978. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, French
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