]
]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 1 item |
| Abstract | Collection includes plantation journal, dated 1848 and 1853-1859, of Ben Sparkman, a white man, who owned or managed at least three plantations, likely located in the Georgetown District of South Carolina that were based on a workforce of enslaved people. The journal includes descriptions of the activities of enslaved workers at the plantations, as well as daily weather conditions, and also includes descriptions of the planting, cultivating, and processing of rice and food crops such as potatoes and corn for local consumption. |
| Creator | Sparkman, Ben, fl. 1853-1859. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
Processed by: Lisa Tolbert, June 1990
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Conscious Editing Work by: Patrick Cullom, July 2020. Updated abstract, subject headings, and scope and content note.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Scope and Content
Collection includes plantation journal, dated 1848 and 1853-1859, of Ben Sparkman, a white man, who owned or managed at least three plantations, likely located in the Georgetown District of South Carolina that were based on a workforce of enslaved people. Most of this journal (about 110 pages) is devoted to a "Memorandum of Planting" (1853-1859), noting enslaved workers roles in planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops, and in various other farm-related duties. Brief descriptions of these activities usually distinguish labor performed by men from that of women. Shorter entries (about 15 pages) include a "Memorandum of the Weather" and accounts showing the rice crop for 1853 through 1858. Places mentioned in the journal include "Wilson's Place," "Black Ground," and "Home Place," all presumably in Georgetown District, South Carolina. One page of an account labelled "George Town, April 25, 1848" has survived. About 20 other pages that apparently bore a "George Town" heading have been cut out of the volume.
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