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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Thurston, George N. Family Papers, 1843-1907. 64 items, 3 vols. Location: C:45. Mississippi River steamboat captain for the New Orleans Ice Company, and a sugar planter at Baskerville Plantation, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. Papers include personal and business letters related to Thurston's work, and diaries and account books kept by his wife, Mary Thurston, concerning the household and plantation. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 1124. Referenced in Guides: Sugar, Plantations, New Orleans to 1861, Transportation, Women, New Orleans 1866-
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Tibbets, Hiram B. Family Papers, 1830-1857. 25 items. Location: A:4. Planter and physician of Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, Louisiana. A native of Massachusetts, Tibbetts and his wife corresponded with his brother John C. Tibbetts in Boston and New Hampshire. Letters primarily to John C. Tibbetts deal with planter-slave relations, and plantation and family news. Topics include Christmas festivities; a wedding held in the slave quarters; and the prevalence of cholera. A partial letter (ca. 1850) provides analysis of the political situation in Louisiana and Mississippi following the Compromise of 1850. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 831, 856, 868, 1300, 1352. |
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Tucker Brothers. Mortgage, 1861. 1 item. Location: Misc.: T. George Washington Tucker joined with Paschal E. Tucker and Sarah L. Tucker Douglas to form a copartnership in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, on Dec. 17, 1859. This mortgage on a sugar plantation in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, includes all plantation property and buildings, including fifty-five slaves who are listed by name and age. Mss. 5254.
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Tureaud, Benjamin. Family Papers, 1803-1932 (bulk 1849-1880). 3,332 items 88 vols. Location: E:114-116, J:1-3. Plantation and store owner of Bagatelle, Brule, and Houmas plantations in Ascension and St. James parishes, Louisiana. Business records consist of a check book for Houmas Plantation; a cashbook for B. Tureaud and Company; and a payroll book for Houmas and Brule Plantations. Some items also available on microfilm 6061, Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration. Series B, Selections from the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, Louisiana State University Libraries; pt. 1, Louisiana sugar plantations, reels 3-13. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 427, 560, 794, 811, 1100. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Business
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Tureaud, Benjamin. Family Papers, 1803-1932 (bulk 1849-1880). 3,332 items, 88 vols. Location: E:114-116, J:1-3, OS:T. Plantation and store owner of Bagatelle, Brule, and Houmas plantations in Ascension and St. James parishes, Louisiana. Papers include plantation records, business records, and correspondence of Benjamin Tureaud and his family. Some records document merchandise sold to African American laborers. Partly in French. Available (with some omissions) on microfilm 6061: University Publications of America Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration, Series B, Part 1, Reels 3-13. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 427. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Women, New Orleans in the Civil War, New Orleans 1866-, Civil War, Baton Rouge, African Americans, French, Jewish Community, Literature
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Turnbull, Daniel Family Papers, 1803-1913. (bulk 1832-1871). 74 items. Location: C:96. Daniel Turnbull was a sugar and cotton planter and founder of Rosedown Plantation in West Feliciana Parish. The collection contains correspondence, legal papers, and financial records of the Turnbull family, including Turnbull's daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and James P. Bowman, and concern the operation of family plantations Rosedown and Bayou Grosse Tete, as well as to the family's experiences during the Civil War, the destruction of DeSoto Plantation, and Turnbull's war claims. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4973. |
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Turnbull, Martha. Diary transcription, 1836-1895. 1 transcription (31 pages). Location: Misc:T. Transcription prepared by Charles A. Haines, curator of Rosedown, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Entries in the diary describe the planting and cultivation of the flower and vegetable gardens. Included are an inventory of household goods (page 12; 1864), lists of slaves' names (page 30), and a death register of slaves (page 31). For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2375. |
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Turnbull, Sarah, 1831-1914. Diary, 1851. Transcription, 1 item (2 pages). Location: Misc.:T. Wife of James Pirrie Bowman, cotton planter, Rosedown, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Entries describe places visited on a European tour. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2375. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Women
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Turnbull-Allain Family Papers, 1784-1941 (bulk 1820-1890). 15 linear ft. Location: C:98-112, OS:T, 99:T. The Turnbull and Allain families were cotton and sugar planters of West Feliciana, West Baton Rouge, and Iberville parishes, Louisiana. Papers include correspondence, legal and financial documents, and plantation records. Included are a large number of Braille writings of Helene Allain, some written while she studied and taught at the Louisiana Institute for the Blind in Baton Rouge. Plantation papers include lists of slaves and laborers. Available on microfilm 5322: University Publications of America Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations Series I, Part 4, Reels 19-34. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4261. Referenced in Guides: Sugar, Plantations, Performing arts, Women, Education, Baton Rouge, African Americans
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Turnbull-Bowman family. Papers, 1771-1956 (bulk 1795-1910). 8 microfilm reels; 5.5 linear ft. Location: MSS.MF:T; X:19-23; OS:T. The Turnbull and Bowman families were cotton and sugar planters of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Financial papers, correspondence, legal documents, personal papers, sheet music, printed items, and photographs of members of the Turnbull and Bowman families, cotton and sugar planters of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Some papers of the related Pirrie and Gray families are included. Early documents reflect involvement of members of the Turnbull family in the fur trade in colonial Louisiana. Most papers reflect planting activities. Papers also include the sermons of William R. Bowman (1800-1835), rector of Grace Episcopal Church in St. Francisville. Some items in Spanish and French. Mss. 4452. Referenced in Guides: Religion, Spanish, Sugar, Plantations, Performing arts, Women, Business, African Americans, French
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