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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Butler, Thomas, 1785-1847. Family Papers, 1663, 1793-1950 (bulk 1820-1920), undated 8,333 items, 53 ms. vols., and 74 printed vols. Location: F:16, OS:B,Mss. Mf.:B, 65:B. Judge of the Louisiana Third District Court. Butler owned plantations in West Feliciana and Terrebonne Parishes. Papers include letters from public officials, friends, and family and correspondence and business papers relative to the management of Butler's plantations and to accounts and civil cases handled by Butler for merchants in Mississippi and Louisiana. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 581, 893, 965, 1353. Referenced in Guides: Politics, Plantations
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Butler, Thomas, 1785-1847. Papers, 1804-1945. 5.5 linear ft. Location: S:13-S:15, OS:B, J:10, Vault. Judge of the Louisiana Third District Court. Butler owned plantations in West Feliciana and Terrebonne Parishes. Papers include correspondence and documents related to household and business finances, documenting the plantation economy in the antebellum and post-bellum periods. Civil War papers include Confederate military orders and other official correspondence. Available (with some omissions) on microfilm 5322: University Publications of America Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations Series I, Part 5, Reels 9-13. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2850. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Civil War
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Cade account books, 1828-1878. 2 vols. Location: F:11. Robert Cade, resident of West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. Entries include Poplar Grove Plantation and the W. B. Chamberlin plantation. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 474. Referenced in Guides: Plantations
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Caffery, Donelson and Family. Papers, 1580-1958 (bulk 1861-1909). 537 items, 39 vols. Location: C:74-75, O:23, OS:C. Planter of St. Mary Parish, Louisiana and U.S. senator. Papers consist of correspondence, genealogies, clippings, photographs, pamphlets, diaries, notebooks, postcards, scrapbooks, and financial records of the Donelson Caffery family. They concerns family matters, Louisiana politics, the Civil War, Caffery's senatorial career, the effects of the Mexican War on the sugar industry, Louisiana oil industry, plantation operations, Jewish hotel guests (v. 4,5) and the removal of Jews from Franklin (v.6). The papers of John Murphy Caffery also reflect his own navel career and the Louisiana sugar industry. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1865. |
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Caffery, Donelson Jr. Letter, 1889. 1 item. Location: Misc.:C. Editor and manager of the Franklin, Louisiana, ST MARY BANNER. Letter from Caffery to W. B. Logan, United States Marshal, in New Orleans, concerns the sale of Ivanhoe Plantation. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 889. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, New Orleans 1866-
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Caffery, Donelson, 1835-1906. Family letters, circa 1879, 1897. 2 letters. Location: Misc. Donelson Caffery was a planter in St. Mary Parish, La., state senator for St. Mary Parish (1892-1894), and U.S. senator from Louisiana (1893-1901). Letters recount recent developments in the Caffery family (circa 1879) and Donelson Caffery's paternal family history (1897). For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4268. |
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Caldwell and Hicky. Receipt, 1837. 1 item. Location: Misc. New Orleans factor. Receipt for payment by Ramsey and Parker of a brokerage fee on the sale of cotton. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1244. |
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Cammack, H. C. (Horace Claiborne). Letter, July 6, 1837. 1 letter, 1 transcript. Location: MISC:C. Merchant and treasurer at Branch Mint in New Orleans. Cammack, New Orleans, writes to F. P. (Francis P.) Corbin (in either London or Liverpool) regarding financial matters at Corbin's plantation (unidentified) and the Panic of 1837. Cammack reports on the selling of slaves and an attempt at selling land, the state of the banks, and the political situation in the country. Mss. 5384. |
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Capell family. Papers, 1816-1931 (bulk 1840-1880). 1 linear ft.; 30 volumes. Location: U:299; F:11; OS:C; MSS.MF:C, VAULT:1, VAULT MRDF 6. Planters and merchants of Amite and Wilkinson Counties in Mississippi. Eli Jackson Capell was a planter of Pleasant Hill Plantation in Amite County and operated a store near Rose Hill, Mississippi. His son Henry Clay was an attorney in Centerville. Business and plantation papers and legal documents comprise the bulk of this collection. These include land deeds; invoices and correspondence regarding shipping cotton; slave bills of sale; diaries, ledgers, and scrapbooks that document daily activities of Pleasant Hill Plantation; and a daybook from the Rose Hill store. Personal correspondence includes two letters from Jefferson Davis and letters of recommendation written for Henry Clay Capell when he was seeking employment with the federal government. Available (with some omissions) on microfilm: University Publications of America Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Part 4, Reel 2. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 56, 257, 1751, 2501, 2597. |
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Capell, Eli J. (Eli Jackson), 1814-1888. Family Papers, 1840-1932 (bulk 1886-1900). 1.3 linear ft., 16 v. Location: E:47-48, F:11, OS:C, Mss.Mf:C. Planter of Pleasant Hill Plantation, Amite County, Mississippi. Capell also operated a store near Rose Hill, Mississippi. Correspondence and business records of the Capell family and related Crawford family. Business, plantation, and legal papers include letters, accounts, and invoices with cotton factors and memorandum books of cotton and merchandise sold; labor contracts and laborersÆ record book; land deeds; and records from the Rose Hill store. Family correspondence from Crawford relatives (1880-1899) relates geographic, economic, race relations, health, and social conditions in parts of Missouri, Texas, Colorado, Utah, and Montana, and letters to Capell daughters concern news of friends, personal relationships, and social activities (1865-1879). Available (with some omissions) on microfilm: University Publications of America Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Part 4, Reels 3-5. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 674. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Women, Civil War, Business, African Americans, Medicine, Natchez, Mississippi
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