A National Historic Landmark, the Nathaniel Russell House Museum was built and completed in 1808 for Charleston slave merchant Nathaniel Russell, becoming an exemplar of neoclassical architecture in the United States. Historic Charleston Foundation acquired the house in 1955 and has restored the site to its original 1808 appearance using forensic analysis and cutting-edge conservation […]
This collection consists of five plantation journals, two of which are almanacs repurposed as plantation journals, for Coffin Point Plantation on St. Helena Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina. The journals were kept between 1800-1816 by or for a member of the Coffin family or plantation manager, E.W. Rose. The journals document the names of […]
Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1723-1793), a colonial South Carolinian, was a remarkable woman who broke gender norms by influencing the colony’s agriculture and business investment plans. She is best remembered for her experiments with indigo and early investment in the indigo market. This receipt book provides fascinating insights into the life of a matriarch on a […]
The St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church Historical and Governing Records Collection consists of documents and photographs that capture the early history of the church and congregation. It includes documents of historical and architectural significance, including the Church Constitution, a program about the 1925 reopening, and early members of the church. The collection also includes correspondence by […]
These three almanacs, from 1792, 1797, and 1798, contain interleaved pages with handwritten plantation journal entries kept by Allard Belin for his plantation on Sandy Island near Georgetown, South Carolina. The journal entries pertain to rice planting and harvesting, maintaining the property, problems with an overseer as well as a list of the names of enslaved persons who […]
This journal, found in the Perry family papers, contains lists of enslaved persons, cotton and rice accounts, and a planting diary for 1813 and 1814 from Roslin Plantation in St. Paul’s Parish.
This is the plantation register by Mathurin Guerin Gibbs (1788-1849) for Rice Hope Plantation and Jericho Plantation. The plantation register primarily documents the cultivation and harvesting of staple crops such as corn, cotton, rice and potatoes, livestock, and building fences. Gibbs also writes about the use and management of enslaved labor and the movement of […]
The journal of George Chicken (1685-1727) was written during the Yamasee War and documents a march across South Carolina to various Cherokee settlements as well as treaty negotiations for peace and alliances against the Creek tribes from January 1715 to February 1716. The journal also includes the correspondence of James Alford and Captain James Woodward. […]
Dirleton Plantation journal was kept either by or for James Ritchie Sparkman (1815-1897) and possibly by a member of the Upton family. Sparkman served as commissioned surgeon in General W.J. Hardee’s Legion during the Civil War. After the death of his father-in-law, physician Edward Thomas Heriot (1793-1854), Sparkman exchanged Birdfield Plantation for Dirleton Plantation (previously […]
Richard Love Johnson (1841-1913) served the Confederacy as an Assistant Surgeon with several units, most notably the 3rd and 15th South Carolina Infantries. Johnson was stationed at various posts during the Civil War including McPhersonville in Beaufort District. His handwritten entries contain the names and units of his patients, notes on their wounds, treatments, surgeries […]