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.
|
Spyker, Leonidas Pendleton, 1818-1867. Collection, 1856-1932 (bulk 1856-1860). 1 vol. [typed copies]. Location: Mss. Mf.:S. Resident of Hard Times Plantation and New Hope Plantation, both in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana. Records include the plantation diary of Leonidas Spyker; a list of family names appearing in the diary; a sketch of the family of Sarah Mildred Gilmer, wife of Spyker; and a list of persons buried in the Spyker family vault in New Orleans. Included is a letter from Mrs. Theodore Wilkinson to Cecilia Egan describing a raid on New Hope Plantation by Union soldiers in the Civil War. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 589. |
|
|
Steele, Archibald B. Family Papers, 1830-1897, undated 22 items, 1 ms. vol. Location: Mss. Mf.:S. Planter and merchant of Amite County, Mississippi. Papers include business records, a family letter (1853), and a journal of Archibald Steele (1832-1840). For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2645. |
|
|
Stephenson, P. D. (Philip Daingerfield), 1845-1916. Memoirs, 1862-1903. 44 items, 11 vols. Location: E:53, G:21, Mss.Mf:S. Presbyterian minister of Woodstock, Virginia, who served as a private in the Confederate Army, Missouri Brigade of Tennessee. Memoirs relate Civil War experiences based on diary entries and letters. He describes the defense and evacuation of Corinth, Mississippi, campaigns, and battles. Diary also recounts the Union invasion and occupation of Huntsville, Alabama. Reminiscences of his wife contain her comments on plantation life and the war. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2482, 2657. |
|
|
Stewart, Ashton L. Papers, 1790-1967. 0.6 linear ft. Location: 91:29. Lawyer for the law suit of the Recreation and Park Commission for East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, versus Al. H. German. Papers include correspondence, manuscript documents, Baton Rouge maps, and legal documents. There are also five color photographs of Magnolia Mound Plantation house and grounds. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2445. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Baton Rouge
|
|
|
Stewart, Robert H. and family. Account books, 1822-1904. 0.5 linear ft., 57 volumes, 8 microfilm reels. Location: UU:211, H:18-19, J:23, MSS.MF:S. Mortician and furniture dealer of Natchez; and owner of Edler Grove Plantation at Bunch's Bend, Carroll Parish, Louisiana. Collection includes daybooks related to the mortuary business, ledgers and inventories related to the furniture business, and a plantation diary and record books. Of note is a ledger containing a list of African American funeral directors and benevolent societies. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 404, 4732. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Transportation, Business, African Americans, Natchez, Mississippi
|
|
|
Stirling, Lewis and family. Papers, 1797-1938 (bulk 1830-1860). 4.25 linear ft. Location: B:76-81, Vault:1, Vault:22, Vault CD MRDF 5 and 16. The Stirlings were sugar cotton planters of Wakefield Plantation, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Business and personal papers of the Stirling family reflect antebellum plantation economy, education, health, and travel. Military orders and receipts for supplies relate to Lewis' service in the Louisiana militia and at the Battle of New Orleans. After 1860 the papers diminish in number and consist primarily of family letters discussing labor problems with freedmen, migration to and life in Texas during the war, and plantation, household, and personal bills. Available (with some omissions) on microfilm 5322: University Publications of America Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations Series I, Part 2, Reels 21-25. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1866. Referenced in Guides: Sugar, Plantations, New Orleans to 1861, Education, African Americans, Medicine
|
|
|
Stone Wall Plantation. Cashbook, 1872. 1 ms. Vol. Location: M:21. West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, sugar plantation. Entries are mainly for wages paid to laborers, giving name and type of work performed. Other entries are for freight and plantation supplies. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 483. |
|
|
Stuart, Ruth McEnery. Letters, 1896-1908. 6 items. Location: Misc:S. Louisiana writer, born near Marksville, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, where her family had a plantation. She lived in New Orleans as a writer until c.1885, when she moved to New York, where she continued to write short stories about plantation life. Several letters from Stuart to friends discuss such topics as her short stories, word etymologies, and Stuart's activities in New Orleans. A 1905 letter asks for part time work for Martha Waddill Austin, also a Louisiana author. Available on microfilm 5750: University Publications of America Southern Women and Their Families in the 19th Century: Papers and Diaries Series E, Reel 31. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1561, 3139, 3396. |
|
|
Sumner, William Graham. Papers, 1876. 2 items. Location: Misc.:S. A correspondent in New Orleans writes Sumner lamenting the end of Reconstruction in Louisiana with the collapse of republican institutions and the poor condition of African-American sugar plantation workers (Nov. 17, 1876). Stephen Whitney writes Sumner from Woodland Plantation inviting him to visit to see a sugar plantation in operation (Nov. 18, 1876). Mss. 3858. |
|
|
Surget, Francis. Estate papers, 1848-1867. 83 items. Location: C:54, OS:S. Land speculator, planter, and one of the largest slaveholders of the antebellum South with more than 10,000 slaves. Surget had extensive holdings in Louisiana and Arkansas. Collection includes papers related to management of Surget's estates in Natchez; an examination and appraisal of lands in Arkansas; and papers related to an estate in Mississippi. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 12, 749. |