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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Concordia Parish inquest case file, 1857. 4 items [transcriptions]. Location: Misc. Transcription by the Historical Records Survey of case papers in the courthouse in Vidalia, Louisiana, for an inquest in the death of the slave Samuel at Forest Home Plantation. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2032. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, African Americans
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Conner, Lemuel Parker and family Papers, 1810-1953, 1985 (bulk 1850-1940). 12.5 linear feet and 28 volumes. Location: AA:, A:106-117, 120-121, 98:C, OS:C, 65: Vault:34, J:24. Planter from Natchez, Mississippi. Papers include correspondence, cotton statements, legal and business papers (including slave testimony in an alleged slave uprising, 1861), plantation records, and Civil War papers of Confederate soldiers and civilians, family letters from LSU and Smith College, and First Presbyterian Church (Natchez) records. Also included are papers of Levin R. Marshall, the Sessions family, and Henry R. Chotard; 256 pieces of published sheet music (1824-1883); a minstrel show program (1879); and miscellaneous programs of Natchez concerts and music recitals. Available (with some omissions) on microfilm 5322: University Publications of America Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations Series I, Part 3, Reels 14-18. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 81, 1403, 1431, 1475, 1551, 1595, 1710, 1793, 1859, 1934, 1999. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Performing arts, Women, Civil War, Business, African Americans, French, Natchez, Mississippi, LSU
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Consolidated Association of Planters of Louisiana. Papers, 1791-1912 (bulk 1827-1882). 9,703 items, 84 vols. Location: U:27-43, F:12-14, OS:C, vault:1, 51-52. Land bank of sugar planters designed to aid planters in securing better credit facilities. Financial records including banking papers; account books; legal documents; land and slave sales; diaries; letter books; plantation records; and correspondence. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 82, 724. |
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Consolidated Association of the Planters of Louisiana. Bond, 1836. 6 items. Location: Misc:C. Bond no. 606 issued to the State of Louisiana for one thousand dollars by the Consolidated Association of the Planters of Louisiana of New Orleans. The bond is signed by Governor E. D. White. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3659. |
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Consolidated Association of the Planters of Louisiana. Papers, 1791-1912 (bulk 1827-1882). 12.6 linear ft., 85 volumes. Location: U:27-43, F:12-14, OS:C, Vault:1, Vault:51-52. Financial records and personal papers of the Consolidated Association of the Planters of Louisiana, a land bank of sugar planters. Collection consists of banking papers, account books, legal documents, documents recording the sale of land and enslaved people, diaries, letter books, plantation records, correspondence, minute books, and printed materials, among other items. Mss. 82, 794. |
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Consolidated Association of the Planters of Louisiana Plantation Sale, 1869 May 21. 1 item. Location: C. Land conveyance describes a sugar plantation in St. Charles Parish sold by the Consolidated Association of the Planters of Louisiana. Mss. 5279.
Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Business
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Cooley, E.C., and Robert J. Cooley. Labor contract, 1867. 1 item. Location: OS:C. Labor contract freedmen working on the Cooley Plantation, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 149. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, African Americans
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Corbin, James P. Papers, 1865-1904 (bulk 1875-1890). 19 vols. Location: F:15. Virginia Military Institute cadet, Confederate soldier, and justice of the peace of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Business and personal papers include plantation diaries recording the operation of Moss Neck and Race Field plantations, Virginia. Papers include minutes from Fredericksburg city council meetings. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 85. Referenced in Guides: Politics, Plantations
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Cotton factors' statements, 1838-1839. 2 items. Location: Misc:C. Taylor Gardiner & Co. and Brander, McKenna, and Wright were cotton factors and commission brokers in New Orleans. Itemized statements from Taylor Gardiner & Co. and Brander, McKenna, and Wright record sales of baled cotton, prices, and accessory charges. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3005. |
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Cotton, William Davis and Family. Papers, 1852-1989. 1 linear ft., 4 vol. Location: S:134, OS:C, H:14. Collection contains correspondence and papers belonging to the Cotton Family. This includes the Civil War correspondence of Dr. Drury P. Gibson and his sister Mary Gibson Cotton, correspondence between George Spencer Cotton and his fiancée Lizzie Davis (1888-1890), and correspondence, photographs, and printed items belonging to William Davis Cotton, attorney of Rayville, La, and former president of LSU Alumni Federation (1969-1989). Mss. 4780. |