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.
Records consist of letters containing daily reports submitted by Assistant Engineer F.M. Hall at Fort Sumter to Major W.H. Echols, "Chief Engineer, S.C." at Charleston, South Carolina.Reports (Dec. 17-Dec. 23) concern work on fortifications being done by slaves and soldiers as well as small administrative and military matters.
The Peter Gaillard Jr. Plantation Journal (1825-1851) is a bound volume written by Peter Gaillard Jr. and other members of the Gaillard family for Rocks Plantation. The volume consists of names of the enslaved people on the property as well as registers of births and deaths, statements and financial accounts related to the farming and selling of cotton as well as tax returns for the estate of S. Gaillard.
