Longtime Charleston preservationist, Elizabeth Jenkins “Liz” Young, was born April 7, 1919 on Edisto Island. In this interview she conveys her love for Charleston and emphasizes the importance of its preservation, gives a brief lesson on the Gullah dialect, and discusses St. Michaels Church. Young also talks about Federal Memorial Day versus Confederate Memorial Day, a holiday designated to memorialize the soldiers lost in the Civil War, which she calls the “War Of Northern Aggression.” Audio with transcript and tape log.
A color photograph of an exhibition of horse walking plows [likely designed by Lanham Cotton Cultivator] at a cultivated field with many attendees and parked Ford Company Model T automobiles. Photograph was likely taken at Harrison's Farm in 1929 in Charleston, S.C.
Black-and-white photograph, taken from waterway, of people walking along water's edge. Writing on back of image reads, "Magnolia Gardens. Charleston, S.C. From Steamer."
1850-1859, 1870-1879, 1860-1869, 1840-1849, 1830-1839, and 1820-1829
Description:
This is the plantation register by Mathurin Guerin Gibbs (1788-1849) for Rice Hope Plantation (January 1, 1824 to December 1844) and Jericho Plantation (December 1844 to 1875). Gibbs, a lawyer before becoming a planter, used the first several pages of the manuscript dating January 1824 to May 1829 for summarizing legal cases. The plantation register primarily documents daily labor activities on the plantation including cultivation and harvesting of staple crops such as corn, cotton (Sea Island Cotton and Santee black seed cotton), rice and potatoes, livestock, and building fences. Gibbes also writes about the use and management of slave labor, the movement of enslaved people between the plantation and Charleston, and selling and purchasing of enslaved people. Slave names are included in portions of the register. Gibbs notes throughout the register the struggles he encounters as a planter including being unable to pay the mortgage of Rice Hope Plantation and the property going into foreclosure. Most of the entries at the end of the register are regarding slave births, slave deaths and distribution of blankets. Gibbs died in 1849 and the management of the plantation was carried out by his son.
Harold Stone Reeves, a native Charlestonian and lifelong performer, discusses the many aspects of his life since his birth in 1892, including his longtime interest in Gullah, attending the University of South Carolina, his commission with the Charleston Light Dragoons during World War I, his involvement with the Society for the Preservation of Spirituals, and his role as the first manager of the of the Charleston Social Security Office. Audio with transcript and tape log.
