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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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. |
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Pugh, William W. and family. Plantation records, 1830-1933 (bulk 1903-1908). 131 items, 14 volumes. Location: G:38-39, OS:P. Planter of Woodlawn Plantation, Assumption Parish, Louisiana, state representative, and president of the Board of Levee Commissioners. Papers include correspondence, legal and financial papers, township maps and survey plats, and printed materials. Financial records deal with Woodlawn, Himalaya, and Mount Lawrence plantations. Papers also include minutes of the Woodlawn Planting & Manufacturing Co., of which Pugh was chair; maps of land holdings in Assumption Parish; and cashbooks, ledgers, record books, and a time book. Available (with some omissions) on microfilm: University Publications of America Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Part 3, Reel 12. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 740, 753. |
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Pugh-Williams-Mayes Family Papers, 1844-1933 (bulk 1855-1884). 1.5 linear ft. (283 items, 15 vols.). Location: D:98, H:11. Plantation owners and slaveholders in Louisiana. Richard Pugh served as a private in the Louisiana 5th Company Battalion of the Washington Artillery during the Civil War. His family fled to Texas before Union troops invaded the Bayou Lafourche area. Papers include genealogical notes on the Pugh family, Civil War correspondence between Mary and Richard Pugh, correspondence from friends and relatives, legal documents, financial papers, and financial manuscript volumes. Available (with some omissions) on microfilm: University Publications of America Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Part 3, Reel 7, and Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Part 4, Reel 11. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 730, 733, 741. |
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Purvis, George C. Family Papers, 1831-1956. 1,706 items and 115 volumes. Location: UU:151-153, 159-161, H:15, 99:P. Planter of Richland Parish, Louisiana. Collection encompasses personal and business correspondence of Purvis, Hatch, and Evans family members, residing in Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Washington. Included are ms. Volumes, printed items, photographs, postcards, newspapers, and miscellanea. A letter to Carrie Purvis from Holden, West Virginia remarks that any work was preferable to working for J. Norman, the Jew of Maugham. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2971. |
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Quitman, John Anthony, 1798-1858. Letter, 1821 December 20. 1 item. Location: Misc.:Q. Natchez, Mississippi lawyer, soldier, politician, and planter. Letter to E. L. Hazelius, written from Natchez, Mississippi, discussing his reasons for leaving his former home in Ohio, his impressions of Mississippi and Natchez, and his professional prospects. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3218. |
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Quitman, John Anthony, 1798-1858. Papers, 1823-1872, 1919. 145 items, 12 vols. Location: B:8, OS:Q, H:10, 99:. Natchez, Mississippi lawyer, soldier, politician, and planter. Personal and family papers include record books, correspondence, broadsides and other printed documents, and diaries. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1403, 1431, 1471, 1595, 1793. |
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Quitman, John Anthony, 1798-1858. Letter, 1848 April 29. 1 item. Location: Misc. Natchez, Mississippi lawyer, soldier, politician, and planter. Letter from 'Monmouth' to Peter G. Washington listing a series of biographical and factual corrections possibly for Frost's history of the Mexican War published about that time. Filed in the online catalog under Quitman, John A., 1798-1858. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2139. |
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Quitman, John Anthony, 1798-1858. Note, 1855. 2 items. Location: Misc.:Q. Natchez, Mississippi lawyer, soldier, politician, and planter. Items include an autographed note to the Library of Congress and a brief published biographical sketch. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1955. |
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Rabb, Nicholas, b. 1799. Family Papers, 1799-1919 (bulk 1836-1876). 99 items,(8 vols. (on 1 microfilm) Location: Mss.Mf:R. Blacksmith and planter of Jefferson and Madison counties, Mississippi. His oldest son, Constantine N. Rabb, was a planter and general merchant of Madison County, Mississippi, and Evangeline and Vernon parishes, Louisiana. Papers include diaries, memoranda, daybooks, and a record book, documenting plantation management, social life, and blacksmith fees. Rabb family genealogical information is in the record book. Constantine Rabb's papers (1851-1905) include letters, tax receipts, and other items reflecting his work as a planter and general merchant. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1843. |
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Randolph, John H. (John Hampden) 1813-1883. Family letters, ca. 1780-1860. 23 items. Location: W:3. Lawyer, planter, and circuit court judge. Randolph was born in Virginia and moved with his family to Wilkinson County, Mississippi, in 1819. In 1841 he moved to Iberville Parish, Louisiana, where he owned Nottoway Plantation. Letters written from Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana by various members of the Randolph family discuss family matters, plantation crops, and the family's move from Virginia to Louisiana. An early letter (1820) describes traveling through Indian territory. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4673. |