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.
Black and white portrait of a girl, possibly Rebecca (Dulce) Moise, 2x4 inches. Back of portrait lists the photographer as John L. Gihon of Philadelphia, PA, and includes a blue, two cent, George Washington postage stamp.
The Gourdin Plantation Journal owned by Peter Gourdin of Cote Bas Plantation is a journal written in 1865 filled with mostly blank pages but when applicable, contains lists of slaves and later freedmen, women and children on the plantation documenting their names, ages, deaths and relationships from the 1840s to 1860s. The names of the former slaves and later freedmen, women and children on the plantation are listed as: Alick, Amey, Andy, Bandz, Bathesheba, Bep/Young Bep, Betty, Binkey, Bitty, Buchanan, Camda, Camdan, Caroline, Cato, Caty, Charlotte, Charly, Cinda, Cretia, Davis, Dennis, Diana, Dinah, Dolly, Ede, Edmund, Emery, Emma, Ephraim, Fillmore, Frank Pina, Frederick, Hagar, Hannah, Hector, Hesther, Jackson, James, Jane, Jenny, Jim/Big Jim/Little Jim, Jimmy/Jimy, Joe, John, Julia, June, Lavinia, Lenah, Linah, Lyndy, March, Margaret, Martha, Mary, Minda, Miria, Nanny, Old Sam, Part, Patuna, Peggy/Old Peggy, Pompey, Rachel, Richard, Rinty, Rock, Sally, Sampson, Samuel, Sarah, Silvy, Smart, Stephen and Toney.
Black and white portrait of Rachel Hart, wife of Nathan Hart and Great-Grandmother of Jane Lazarus Raisin, 2.5x4 inches. Portrait card also includes a blue George Washington postage stamp.
