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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Harkins, John. Manuscript, 1967. 1 item (59 pages). Location: E:45. Poplar Grove, Sugar Plantation on the West Bank of the Mississippi River across from Baton Rouge,' term paper presented for Fine Arts 120 taught by Mr. James R. Reeves. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2250. |
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Harris, William H. Papers, 1893-1930. 14 items, 1 vol. Location: MISC:H. Probably an African American who worked as a foreman or handyman around Augusta Plantation Sugar House, Bayou Goula, Iberville Parish, Louisiana. Papers include business correspondence and a Wholesale Pocket Business Directory of New Orleans for 1893. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3261. |
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Harrison, L. B. Letter, 1854 Mar. 23. 1 item. Location: Misc.:H. L.B. Harrison in New Orleans, La., remarks how his wife enjoyed the countryside around the Louisiana sugar plantations. He also recommends that spending a month in a sugar house at grinding season is a cure for lung diseases because of the beneficial effects of the vapors rising from the sugar kettles. Mss. 3858. |
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Hawkes, John. Letter, 1863 January. 1 item. Location: Misc. Union soldier in the Civil War, a member of the 50th Massachusetts Regiment. Letter written from Camp Parapet, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, to a member of Hawkes' family in Maine. He mentions the fortifications at camp, guarding the plantation of a widow, and drinking the river water. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1265. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Civil War
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Hawkins, J. E. (Josiah Edwin). Papers, 1857-1929 (bulk 1880-1900). 6.7 linear ft. (4,464 items, 135 ms. vols., 52 printed vols.). Location: UU:309-315, J:8-9, OS:H, 98:H. Physician, surgeon, and farm owner in Bayou Chicot, Evangeline Parish, Louisiana. Hawkins was originally from Georgia and first practiced medicine in Columbia City, Arkansas. Collection includes professional, business, and personal papers related to Hawkins' medical career. Papers include medical daybooks, plantation diaries, financial records, maps, and newspapers from New Orleans and St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 982. |