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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Chatsworth Plantation store records, 1865-1893. 0.7 linear ft. Location: 33:33. Plantation in Louisiana purchased by the Gardere family in 1866 and managed by Fergus Gardere until 1895. Gardere also operated a cotton gin in partnership with Joseph Staring in the 1880s. Papers relate to the operation of the store and plantation at Chatsworth, and to the Gardere and Staring families. They include store ledgers recording accounts and payrolls. There is also material from a plantation journal in French and English. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4589. |
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Chinn, Jane McCausland. Civil War reminiscence, 1863. 1 item [16 pages, typescript copy]. Location: Misc. Mistress of Fair Oaks Plantation, West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, and widow of Cabell Breckinridge Chinn. Reminiscences taken from her diary record encounters with Union soldiers and the burning of grain stores. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2647. |
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Clark, Charles and family. Papers, 1829-1973 (bulk 1851-1936). 1.1 linear ft. Location: UU:254, 65:2, OS:C. Judge of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California; married to Emma Fowler of New Orleans, Louisiana. Papers of the related Fowler, Nutt, Macbeth, and Clark families. They consist of personal and family correspondence, legal papers of Nathaniel W. Fowler and John Slidell, writings, photographs, printed items, ephemera, and the travel journal of Charles Clark. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3982. Referenced in Guides: Politics, Plantations, New Orleans to 1861, Women, New Orleans 1866-, Civil War, Literature
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Clauss & Fischer. Journal, 1851-1852. 1 vol. Location: G:16. Merchants and commission brokers of Bayou Sara,inancial relationships with agents in New Orleans. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3022. Referenced in Guides: Plantations
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Clement, George. Family Papers, 1863-1876 (bulk 1863-1867). 13 items and 1 ms. vol. Location: Misc.:C, M-18. French-speaking farming family of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. Collection includes financial papers, legal documents, personal papers, and a time book (1878) recording hours worked by agricultural laborers. Largely in French. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1148. |
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Close, John. Papers, 1802-1872 (bulk 1802-1859). 325 items. Location: U:330. Contractor's agent for the United States Army post at Opelousas and a cotton planter of Petit Bois Plantation, Port Barre, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Correspondence includes letters from New Orleans merchants concerning orders for supplies and other business at the Army post. Plantation papers consist mostly of correspondence of cotton factors in New Orleans. Personal papers include correspondence from Kentucky and Mississippi and genealogical information about the Chauvin family. Correspondence chiefly in French. Available on microfilm 5322: University Publications of America Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations Series I, Part 2, Reels 17-18. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1646. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, New Orleans to 1861, New Orleans 1866-, Civil War, Business, French
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Cockfield E.J. and Family Papers, 1854-1930 (bulk 1875-1890). 1.3 linear feet, 15 manuscript volumes. Location: A:65-66, P:19, OS:C. Planter and businessman of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Family papers spanning three generations include local Natchitoches news; correspondence and descriptions of the Cockfield family in Williamsburg County, South Carolina; and letters from a son in France during World War I. Included are items related to local public schools, including programs for musicals and plays at Louisiana State Normal College (now Northwestern State University). For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 989. |
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Colbert, Elenor Robinson, 1940-, interviewee. Oral history interview, 1993. 1 sound cassette (45 minutes), Index (2 pages). Location: L:4700.222. Resident of Four Corners, an unincorporated community south of Franklin, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. Colbert's great-grandmother was a slave. Colbert describes working in cane fields as a child; customs of family gatherings, the burial of umbilical cords of newborns, and cutting hair on Good Friday; the challenges of plantation life; christening and baptism traditions; and natural remedies. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4700.222. |
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Cole, Christian Grenes. Family Papers, 1911-1935. .25 linear ft. Location: T:95. Correspondence, legal documents and financial papers reflect the business dealings of Robert Ruffin Barrow and Christian Grenes Cole of Terrebonne Parish, La. Papers relate to the bankruptcy of Myrtle Grove Syrup Co. Inc., confiscation of land in Terrebonne Parish, La., and a mortgage default in New Orleans. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3648. |
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Compton, Mary E. Family papers, 1858-1955 (bulk 1858-1888). 26 items, 2 v. on one microfilm reel. Location: Mss.Mf:C, C:72. Wife of George W. Compton, a planter of Walnut Grove Plantation near Cheneyville, Louisiana. Letters of Capt. Henry E. Handerson, 9th Louisiana, relate to life at Camp Bienville and the Battle of Manassas. Compton's diary documents wartime operation of the plantation. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1299. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Women
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