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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Pirrie, James. Papers, 1803-circa 1830. 0.2 linear ft. Location: UU:104. Member of a Scottish family, an alcalde under the Spanish, and owner of Oakley Plantation in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Papers include documents related to plantation and business matters, cotton marketing, and legal affairs of the family. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1382. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, New Orleans to 1861, Performing arts, Women, Business, African Americans
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Plauche, Joseph. Papers, 1901-1946. 576 items, 78 vols. Location: O:58. African American planter of Natchez, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Plantation account books, business papers, and personal correspondence reflect the extent of the Plauche's farming operations. Available on microfilm 6061: University Publications of America Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Part 2, Reels 7-11. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 944. |
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Plough, Alonzo L. Papers, 1818-1866 [on microfilm]. Location: Mss. Mf.:P. New Orleans, Louisiana, dentist. Papers of Plough and of Edward Simon, and a plan of Jean Berard's plantation, now the town of St. Martinville, Louisiana. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2149. |
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Poche, Louis Aristee. Papers, 1937-1954. 8 items, 2 ms. vols. Location: Misc:P, Mss.Mf:P. Perique tobacco planter from Convent, St. James Parish, Louisiana. Papers include correspondence and record books documenting the cultivation of perique tobacco in St. James Parish. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2882. Referenced in Guides: Plantations
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Polk, Horace M. Letters, 1860-1868. 16 items. Location: U:119. Planter on Bayou Bartholomew near Bastrop (Morehouse Parish), Louisiana, and delegate to the Louisiana Secession Convention. Letters from Polk to his father-in-law, Major John H. Bills of Bolivar, Tennessee, dealing with cotton and tobacco farming, prices for land, and African American labor issues. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1628. |
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Polmer, Irving. Plantation time book, 1910-1911. 1 ms. vol. Location: G:18. Plantation time book from Irving Polmer of 'Ducros', containing monthly time record for laborers employed at Waubun, operated by John T. Moore Planting Co., Ltd., according to Bouchereau's Directory of . . . Cane Growers of Louisiana, 1909-1910. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1838. Referenced in Guides: Sugar, Plantations
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Port Hudson journal, 1838-1839. 1 volume. Location: G:2. Journal for a general merchandise and cotton firm of Port Hudson, Louisiana. Part of the East Feliciana Parish Archives Collection. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1100. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Business
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Porteous, Thomas Clark, 1841-1919. Papers, 1858-1898. .5 linear ft. (137 items; 6 vols.). Location: C:68, J:9, M:21. Manager of Levois Drygoods Store in New Orleans and of Star Plantation, St. Charles Parish, Louisiana; and bookkeeper for the Godchaux Department Store in New Orleans. Porteous was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Papers include documents related to Porteous' work at Star Plantation and at the stores. Included are letters, bank books, account records, receipts, and a map of the plantation. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1200, 1201, 1316. |
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Porter, Alexander. Papers, 1811-1879 (bulk 1839-1844, 1879). 13 items. Location: Misc:P, OS:P. Sugar planter of Oaklawn Manor, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, politician, Louisiana Supreme Court justice (1821-1833). Papers consist of correspondence, a 10-page biography of Alexander Porter, an 1821 certificate naming Porter to the Louisiana Supreme Court, and an 1811 certificate validating a land grant to a free person of color. Correspondence discusses Porter's involvement with the slave trade. and various lease agreements with the Leverich families over Oaklawn Manor. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4947. |
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Pradel, Jean Charles de, 1692-1764. Family Papers, 1719-1954. 407 items on 1 microfilm reel. Location: Mss.Mf:P. Native of France and soldier and planter of New Orleans. He was married to Alexandrine de la Chaise de Pradel and operated Mon Plaisir Plantation. Papers include correspondence of Jean Charles de Pradel and his wife. His letters deal with business matters, the development of the Louisiana colony, and the discipline of slaves. Her letters deal with his estate and their daughters in France. In French. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2866. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, New Orleans to 1861, Women, New Orleans 1866-, African Americans, French
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