The Porcher family history book contains biographical information, reminiscences, and anecdotes about the Porcher family, who lived on multiple plantation properties in Berkeley County, South Carolina. The book also contains numerous photographs depicting plantation houses, chapels, a slave cabin, and portraits of Porcher family members and workers around the properties.
Typescript text of an address delivered at the Charleston (S.C.) Rotary Club on December 22, 1953 by D. A. Amme, Vice President, Board of Firemasters. Speech traces the history of firefighting in Charleston from the 18th century until the 1950s. Also notes the affliation of the police department and lists "Notable Conflagrations."
This diary, written by an unnamed member of the McLeod family, contains entries throughout 1927 and October 1931. Most entries concern the weather, the author's health, and author's interactions with various friends and family members.
“Stories Collected from Slaves” by Leonarda J. Aimar is a bound volume of formerly enslaved people's stories. In her transcription, she attempted to capture the storytellers’ colloquial speech, now recognized as the Gullah language. The volume includes a list of addresses, occupations, and diseases of African Americans during their enslavement; an eye-witness account of the Battle of Secessionville on James Island during the Civil War in 1862; how enslaved people were returned to their slaveholders following the Revolutionary War; and an account of Sherman's march from Savannah, Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina during the Civil War. A formerly enslaved man, Sam, provides a detailed account of being a butler, coachman, and horse jockey. He also recounts how Union Army Major Robert Anderson took control of Fort Sumter and the events that transpired there on April 12, 1861. Other accounts include an enslaved man’s recollections of his time as a servant to a plantation overseer who sympathized with the Union during the Civil War and formerly enslaved man Jim Alston’s detailed eye-witness account of the 1876 Cainhoy Riot.
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.
One of three scrapbooks compiled by William Henry Johnson containing, among other materials, photographs depicting scenes of the South Carolina Lowcountry, with descriptive notes. Volume 1 includes photographs depicting cemeteries, churches, plantations, historic buildings, ruins, landscapes, and the interiors of buildings. Subjects include locations in Berkeley County, St. Johns (Berkeley) Parish, Goose Creek, and along the Cooper River. Other sites and subjects include Belmont, Black Oak Church, Bluford, Casada, Cedar Grove, Cedar Spring, Comingtee, a Prioleau family burial ground, Crowfield, Dean Hall Plantation, Dockon Plantation, Eutaw, Eutaw Springs, Exeter, Fairspring, Fort Dorchester, Four Hole Swamp, Gippy, Gravel Hill, the gravestone of Susan Bee, Hanover Plantation, Indian Fields Campground, Ingleside, Indianfield, Liberty Hall Club, Lewisfield, Magnolia Cemetery, monument of Col. Hezekiah Maham, grave of Major Majoribanks, Medway Plantation, Mepkin, a milestone by the Cooper River, Moorfield, Mount Pleasant Plantation, Mulberry Castle, North Hampton, Numertia, The Oaks Plantation, Ophir, Otranto Hunting Club, Parnassus, Pimlico, Pinegrove, Pond Bluff, Pooshee Plantation, John Poppenheim's plantation, Quarter house, Red Bank Hunting Club, an Episcopal church in Pineville, Rice Hope Plantation, The Rocks, St. James Goose Creek church, St. Johns Berkeley rectory site, St. Johns AME Church, a St. Julien family house, a Santee Canal lock, "Sarrazin house," a shanty, Somerset Plantation, Somerton Plantation, "Francis Marion spring," Springfield, Stoney Landing, Strawberry Chapel, Ten Mile Hill, Thoroughgood, Wadboo Barony, Wadboo bridge, Walnut Grove, Walworth, Wampee, Wampoolah, Wappetaw, Washington Plantation, the Whaley place, White Hall, Wiskinboo, Woodlawn, and Yeamans Hall.
A notebook (ca. 1920) containing reminiscences by Rose P. Ravenel, who writes about her girlhood, her relationship with her "mammy" and her French nurse. She describes life at Farmfield Plantation during the Civil War, knitting socks for Confederate soldiers, making paper and envelopes, salt production, molasses candy, flower dolls, and the family's hardships after the Civil War.
Records include correspondence, lists of dues-paying members, and receipts. The names of Carl Metz, R. Emmett Vaughan, and Charles F. Hencken, president, secretary, and treasurer of Local No. 502, figure prominently in the records. "Musicians' Protective Association" appears as part of the name of the local in many records.
The bulk of the material relates to the payment of dues to the union, and some records concern the rental of the German Artillery Hall for the organization's meeting and for concerts by the Metz Band.
Plantation journal from McLeod Plantation. It lists the names and accounts of workers (1910-1921), contains notes on crops (1926-1944), and has a number of family accounts (1927-1965).
A ballot for the primary election of School Commissioner held November 3rd, 1903. G.M. Pollitzer and H.B. Brux are listed as candidates. Also recorded on the ballot are the results of the primary election, declaring G.M. Pollitzer the winner by a score of 253 votes to H.B. Brux's 130 votes.
Pattie Ann Bird's application for membership for The North Carolina Society of Colonial Dames of America. On the last page, makes notation that her ancestor Col. William Eaton "brought eleven white and twenty-three black persons into the colony of N.C."
Bound papers written by Anne Simons Deas in 1900 describing the harvesting and planting of rice by freed men and woman. The pages also discuss the atmosphere of the rice fields, describing how the workers sing hymns and converse with one another.
A handwritten note by R.H Washington to Dr. J. Flagg requesting that Washington's son be medically examined. Washington also mentions he himself is ill and is experiencing a fever as he has been working on the rice farms.
Letters from Langdon Cheves Jr. to General Edward Porter Alexander discussing the confederate balloon, Indian rubber and other details concerning the creation of the balloon.
A letter to Dr. Joshua John Ward Flagg from James Pyatt discussing a land plat, title and deed. The other side of the item includes an account for various patients.
A personal account of visiting Old Dorchester describing the land, roads, a Presbyterian Church, an old fort built by the English for protection from the "Spaniards and Indians," and a tombstone used during the American Revolution to butcher meat.
An official school report for the Brookgreen School that includes enrollment and numbers, subjects being taught and school furniture. The students are divided by "white" and "colored" and the report includes the notation that Thomas Small, identified as a "negro" was sick with a fever.
This document is both a newspaper clipping and written letter to the editors of the Laurensville Herald. The clipping, titled "The Block of Ten Verdict" discusses the outrage over the arrest of ten black men, referenced as "negroes." The letter includes a list of subscribers who contributed money on behalf of the ten accused men.
A letter from William Ball at Limerick Plantation to Mary thanking her for a package she sent, his poor health and treatment from a doctor, and reflections on a party during the Christmas season. The letter goes on to discuss the Christmas of the "good old days in slavery time, thanks to Mr. Lincoln" and that two servants remain in the household as they "never left us."
A page of G.M. Pollitzer's listing and detailing important dates: his engagement and marriage to Clara Guinzburg, the birth of Carrie Teller Pollitzer, Richard M. Pollitzer, Mabel Pollitzer, and Anita Lilly Pollitzer.
A letter from Dr. Arthur B. Flagg discussing a medical bill payment. The other side of the document includes an account with associated figures in dollars.
