The Account of Enslaved Persons and Various Stories, 1831-1844, is kept by or for a member of the Ball family. The first half of the account book contains various lists of enslaved men, women and children owned by John Ball at Comingtee/Stoke, Kensington and Midway Plantations in Berkeley County, South Carolina. These lists include enslaved persons given first or second quality blankets, cloth, clothes and osnaburg fabric as well as lists of pregnant enslaved women or enslaved infants given clothes.
The second half of the book contains stories retold by various persons on topics such as an eyewitness account of the Steamship Pulaski Disaster in 1838, stories of enslaved persons including the execution of an enslaved man, stories about the family of George Chicken, eyewitness accounts of the British occupation in Charleston during the Revolutionary War, numerous ghost stories and an account of the first settlers of Charlestown.
The John Ball Plantation Account Book, 1812-1834, is an indexed account book kept by overseers at various plantations owned by the Ball family. Overseers named are John Cox, Arthur McFarland, Samuel Lynes, Alexander McKnight, Britton Bunch, John Dickson, Thomas Fincklea, James Coward, and John Page. Of particular interest are two different accounts, one with William Deas, referred to as a "Mulatto" and the other "Free Nancy," a free black woman at Limerick Plantation who was buying and trading rice and sugar.
Articles of agreement between John Ball Jr., executor of the estate of John Ball Sr., and Midway and Kensington Plantations overseer Britton Bunch. The agreement outlines John Ball Jr.'s agreement to pay Britton Bunch $200, to have the authority to discharge him, Britton Bunch's share of plantation cattle and crops, an agreement that John Ball Jr. will "let Britton Bunch have a boy to wait & a woman to cook & wash for him," Bunch's agreement to take care of the enslaved persons, especially when sick and with "moderation and humanity and on no occasion to beat them with sticks nor at any one time to inflict more than twenty stripes when necessary to correct them & then with switches.
A tax return of John Ball's taxable property made out and paid to Theodore L. Gourdin. The tax returns include tide swamps, pine land, 459 enslaved persons in St. John's Parish, fifteen enslaved persons in the parish of St. Philip's, 260 enslaved persons at Comingtee/Stoke Plantation, 102 enslaved persons at Kensington Plantation and ninety-seven enslaved persons at Midway Plantation.
A list of plates delivered to M.C. Ball belonging to the estate of John Ball Sr. from the Kensington house, Marshland farm, and a house on East Bay Street in Charleston.
A memorandum from John Ball on Major John Wilson on resurveying the lines of lands connected with the eastern branch of the Cooper River which includes Hyde Park, Kensington, Midway and St. James Plantations.
Statistics on the plantations owned by John Ball Sr., which are Midway, Hyde Park, Kensington, White Hall, Belle Isle, Three Mile Head, Pine Land, Pimlico, Mepshew and Kecklico Plantations. Statistics are derived from various plats and note the number of acres for each plantation or property, their values and the number of enslaved persons owned by John Ball and his daughters which amounts to a total of 460 enslaved persons. The document also includes statistics for the estate of John and Lydia Bryan which includes 111 enslaved persons.
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 list of enslaved women confined at Midway Plantation and tools left out by the enslaved person Marcus. The bottom of the document is a balance of tools at Kensington Plantation.
