A copy of the last will and testament of Benjamin Garden in which he divides his estate among his remaining relatives. States that the enslaved men Radcliff and Tom be "shipped off and sold to the Spaniards or at the Bay of Honduras..." Garden also frees the enslaved man named Taunton from "all further servitude" and the house "wench" Alley stating it is "my wish to liberate her from all future slavery." Makes notation that the enslaved persons Abram, Sarah, "Statyrah" and Moses are to be sold, and names enslaved persons to be moved to other family plantations.
This letter is from John Lloyd in Charleston, South Carolina to his nephew Thomas B. Smith in London, England. Some of the contents of the letter discuss Smith's slave who was stolen, which he references as "a negro"; Lloyd's advocacy of "the new Constitution"; Smith's nephew William Farr who arrived from Holland and the estate of Thomas Farr.
Fragment of a legal document concerning a lawsuit involving Charleston, South Carolina merchant Joseph DaCosta and South Carolina state representative Richard Andrew Rapley.
Papers consist of technical and mechanical drawings, formulae and notes, and other items. Drawings in pencil and ink (some hand-colored) depict a marsh plow, a windmill, a canal, Dutch yachts, an Amsterdam canoe (pontoon?), a trunk (irrigation device), a chakram (water-raising machine of India), a "double canoe" of Polynesia, a Venetian well (or cistern), a rice mill, a horse hoe, a gunpowder mill, a Welsh carr (carriage), the "bear" (plowing device?), and other devices. Some of these drawings may have been sent to Thomas Pinckney by William Vans Murray (U.S. foreign minister at The Hague in the 1790's). Several drawings (of the double canoe, Venetian well, chakram, the bear, and Amsterdam canoe) are accompanied by notes and descriptions. Formulae and instructions are for making cement for china, cottonseed oil, paints, oil compost, milk paint, and other products. Other items include a printed description of "Goodsell's Patent Hemp and Flax Dresser, & Grain Thrasher," a printed description of Benjamin B. Bernard's threshing machine (ca. 1808), a print depicting three bridges (bears the printed signature of Lewis Wernwag), a printed article entitled "Remarks on the Culture of Barrilla," a copy of a letter (1802) to Henry Laurens from N. & D. (Nathan and David) Sellers concerning a rolling screen for cleaning rice, and newspaper clippings.
Survey of Midway Plantation owned by John Ball Esq. The survey shows locations of rice fields, canals, dams, floodgates, pinelands, reservoirs, banks, the settlement situated on high land, roads, and "Lanneau's Ferry" also known as Lenud's Ferry.
A letter from Elias Ball IV at Limerick Plantation to Elias "Wambaw" Ball III exiled in Bristol, England on an account between the Balls and James Gordon, Elias Ball IV's tiredness, the rice and corn crops, planting 225 acres of rice at Comingtee Plantation, and debt.
A 1791 indenture between Elizabeth Frances Allston of Georgetown and Benjamin Allston for the sale of five enslaved persons, referenced as "negro slaves" from the estate of Benjamin Allston. The enslaved persons are listed as, "Phane," Mary, Thomas, Amos and Stephen.