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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Pre Aux Cleres Plantation. Record books, 1852-1854. 2 vols. Location: H:10. Plantation located in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, owned by J. H. McKnight. Record books of Pre Aux Cleres Plantation containing quarterly inventories of stock and implements and daily reports of plantation routines made by the overseer noting weather, progress of crops, work of slaves, and amount of cotton picked. Available on microfilm 5322: University Publications of America Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations Series I, Part 2, Reel 19. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 684. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, African Americans
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Prescott, M. R. E. (Mary Rose Emma), d. 1864. Record book, 1850-1863. 1 ms. vol. Location: Misc:P. Wife of planter Aaron Prescott. Infrequently-dated notations listing slaves of Cedar Grove Plantation, Rapides Parish, Louisiana; clothing and tobacco issued to them; and other related information. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4276. |
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Prichard, Walter, 1887-1965. Collection, 1804-1950 ca. (bulk 1804-1897). 196 items. Location: C:11-12. Professor of History, LSU. Collection contains the papers relating to the cotton trade, the career of Thomas Bolling Robertson, a politician and jurist, and Jane Dunbar Ferguson, a planter of Washington, Mississippi. Papers concern the Louisiana political activities of Robertson, the friction between the French and Americans in Louisiana, and yellow fever in New Orleans. Family letters of Ferguson discuss travel from New Orleans to New York, education, family matters, and Natchez acquaintances. Papers also contain with transcriptions, research notes, and footnotes by Prichard. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2509. Referenced in Guides: Politics, Plantations, New Orleans to 1861, Women, Education, Medicine, Natchez, Mississippi
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Prudhomme, P. Lestant. Diaries, 1850-1852. 3 v. (on microfilm). Location: Mss. Mf.:P. Son of a Natchitoches Creole planter. Personal diary reflects plantation life detailing social events, family affairs, personal activities, and local area news and weather. Entries also include possible sale of slaves (Feb. 12, 1850), visit to a former slave (April 27, 1850), and comments on secession (May 11, 1850). Several entries pertain to his many relations among the Metoyer, Cloutier, and Lambre families. Entry in French (page 133) discusses the birth of his cousin and significance of "baton" when a female child is born. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1578. |
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Pugh (Thomas and Family) Papers, 1832-1946 (bulk:1852-1882). 0.3 linear feet. Location: U:217; OS:P. A sugar planter who built Madewood Plantation on Bayou Lafourche in Assumption Parish, La. Consists of correspondence, legal documents, photographs, certificates and diplomas related to the succession of Thomas Pugh and the personal affairs of the Pugh, Ballard, Vance and Barton families. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4437. Referenced in Guides: Plantations
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Pugh, Alexander Franklin, 1819-1883. Papers, 1850-1865. 0.25 linear ft. (11 items, 7 ms. Vols., 3 transcript vols.). Location: 77:88. Part owner and manager of Augustin, Bellevue, Boatner, New Hope, and Whitmell plantations on Bayou Lafourche in Assumption and Lafourche parishes, Louisiana. Papers include plantation diaries describing crop yields, behavior and health of slaves, economic conditions, and Civil War news. Includes a payroll account of former slaves (1865). Available on microfilm 5322: University Publications of America Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations Series I, Part 1, Reels 6-7. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 354. |
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Pugh, Josephine Nicholls, 1820-1868. Civil War account, circa 1865-1868. 2 items (17 pages). Location: Misc.:P. Wife of Colonel William W. Pugh, planter of Woodlawn Plantation, Assumption Parish, Louisiana. Personal account titled 'Dark Days: A Woman's Record,' describes the occupation of Assumption Parish by Union troops in 1862 and comments on the behavior of the occupying troops, the reaction of slaves, and Confederate civilian experiences. Included is a reminiscence of Mrs. Pugh by her husband. Available on microfilm 6061: University Publications of America Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Part 3, Reel 7. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2618. |
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Pugh, Mary W. Papers, 1882-1925. 1.5 linear ft. 17 vols. Location: A:6-8, P:20, OS:P. Widow of Richard L. Pugh, of Live Oak Plantation, Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. Correspondence of Mrs. Pugh principally from her children. Contains a letter concerning African American labor problems; and memorandum book #5 and time books for the Thibodaux Brick Works. Photographs of Live Oak Plantation and the Maguire home in Tennessee are also included. For further information, see online catalog. Available on microfilm 6061: University Publications of America Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Part 3, Reels 13-14. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 897, 1055. |
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Pugh, W. W. (William Whitmell), 1811-1906. Welman F. Pugh diary, 1844-1864 (bulk 1862-1863). 8 items, 1 vol. Location: Misc.:P, H:22. Planter of Woodlawn Plantation, Assumption Parish, Louisiana, state representative, and president of the Board of Levee Commissioners. Confederate diary of Col. W. W. Pugh's fifteen year old son (1847-1863) of Woodlawn Plantation, Assumption Parish, Louisiana. Includes eight items removed from the diary. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2113. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Civil War
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Pugh, William W. Letters, 1891-ca. 1900. 20 letters. Location: T:35. Planter of Bayou Lafourche, Assumption Parish, La., Civil War officer and president of the Board of Levee Commissioners. Letters to Ellen Pugh discuss politics, plantation crops, sugar legislation, the sugar trade, weather, and the Spanish-American war. They also report on health, social activities and family matters. Pugh writes about the right to vote and literacy, presidential election of 1898 (Sept. 14, 1898, ca. 1900), and he refers to the mumps (Aug. 16, 1897) and yellow fever in New Orleans and Mississippi (1897-1898). For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3578. |