This is a Sandy Island plantation journal written inside of The South Carolina and Georgia Almanac for the year 1792. The plantation journal documents the planting of crops (rice, corns, and potatoes), the maintenance of ditches and drains, slave records, complications with the hiring of an overseer, livestock, and business relations with Laurel Hill Plantation.
The Direleton Plantation Memorandum Book was kept by James Ritchie Sparkman beginning in the 1850s; changes in handwriting indicate additional authors and additional uses into the 1900s. The book contains slave records. Records includes slave births, slave deaths, purchases of slaves, sales of slaves, family seperation, measurements for clothing, distribution of blankets, and labor tasks. The book also contains lists of first and last names of agricultural workers after the American Civil War and figures, likely wages paid. There are account records kept for purposes of the Internal Revenue Services, Confederate taxes and bonds, personal and agricultural work purchases, and financial transactions with B.M. Grier, Eliza S. Heriot, Dr. R.S. Heriot, A.G. Heriot (with signed receipts), M.E. Heriot (with signed receipts), and G.A. Thorne. There are transactions with other plantations recorded including Cornhill Plantation, Northampton Plantation, and Birdfield Plantation. There is information on livestock, wines removed from the plantation, and rice sales.
A letter from Elias Ball II at Kensington Plantation to his son John Ball in Charleston, South Carolina discussing the health of the family, opportunities for John and Elias Ball, and needing the enslaved man Ben to pick up rice.
A letter from John Ball Sr. at Kensington Plantation to his son John Ball Jr. at Harvard College in Massachusetts discussing John's improved health, sending the enslaved man Nat to Boston assist John, the weather, and the rice crops.
A letter from Stoke Plantation overseer Thomas Finklea to John Ball in Charleston discussing a shipment of snake root and butter, the work of the enslaved persons with the rice crops, repairing the "negro houses," the work of Bristol and Marcus, a list of sick enslaved persons (mostly children), the birth of an enslaved child, and an inventory of cattle.
A letter from Stoke Plantation overseer Thomas Finklea to John Ball in Charleston discussing how he found corn in the flats of the enslaved persons and that they "ought to be flogged," the rice crops and fields, the birth of an enslaved child, a list of sick enslaved persons, and an inventory of cattle.
A letter from Stoke Plantation overseer Thomas Finklea to John Ball in Charleston discussing that he sent Elsie and Thomas down with butter, the birth of an enslaved child, the rice crops and fields, a list of sick enslaved persons, the work of Scipio and Bristol, Billey and Tom each having a sore hand and an inventory of cattle.
A letter from Stoke Plantation overseer Thomas Finklea to John Ball in Charleston discussing tasks completed, the rice crops, Bristol's work with the floodgate and Scipio's with the cattle, a list of sick enslaved persons, an inventory of cattle and the birth of an enslaved male child.
A letter from Stoke Plantation overseer Thomas Finklea to John Ball in Charleston discussing the rice crops, the work of Jaccey and Scipio, the poor health of numerous enslaved persons, the birth of an enslaved child, and an inventory of cattle.
A letter from overseer John Jacob Ischudy to John Ball in Charleston discussing a shipment from John Ball of butter and rice and the "misconduct of Payne & Daphne. The letter goes on to discuss that Payne has been robbing Ischudy and that he believes Daphne is his accomplice. As a result of this discovery, Ischudy writes that Payne was "smartly punished" but has now fled to the woods. Ischudy is requesting to exchange Payne for another enslaved person. The letter ends with Ischudy describing enslaved persons as "such creatures. Their "natural dishonesty, lying, laziness & the constant necessity of having one's eye upon them, worry me & almost wear me out. Mrs. Ischudy is even more sick of them..."
