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Size | About 90 items |
Abstract | Members of the Bacot family were cotton planters of the Mars Bluff Plantation near Florence in the Darlington District, S.C., and, beginning in 1865, partners in the Jarrot & Bacot Drug Store in Florence. The collection includes correspondence, financial and legal materials, and other items of the Bacot family. Materials relate chiefly to the business dealings of Peter S. Bacot, who ran Mars Bluff plantation, and to Mary H. Brockinton, a relative who lived at Mars Bluff. Topics include the sale of cotton through factors in Charleston, S.C.; plantation life; and family and social affairs. Also included are slave lists, and, after the Civil War, contracts relating to the employment of freedmen on the plantation. There is also a small number of items relating to the Jarrot & Bacot Drug Store in Florence, S.C., which opened in 1865. Currency issued by South Carolina in 1775 through 1862 is included, as are typed transcriptions of articles about Huguenots in South Carolina, from whom the Bacots were descended. |
Creator | Bacot (Family : Darlington County, S.C.) |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, July 1990
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, December 2009
Back to TopThe 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.
The Bacot family owned the Mars Bluff Plantation near Florence in the Darlington District of South Carolina. There, with the assistance of a considerable number of slaves, they grew cotton and other cash crops. Chief among the Bacots in the 1840s and 1850s was Peter S. Bacot, who appears to have been responsible for the running of Mars Bluff. After the Civil War, the Bacots seem to have entered into a partnership to open the Jarrot & Bacot Drug Store in Florence.
Back to TopThis collection consists chiefly of correspondence and financial and legal materials relating to Bacot family members. Peter S. Bacot's son Richard is represented by an exchange of letters between him and his father in 1855, when Richard was at school. Mary H. Brockinton, a relative who was resident at Mars Bluff, was the recipient of many of the early letters in the collection. These letters are chiefly about family and social affairs. Much of the material relates to the running of the Mars Bluff Plantation, with many letters to Peter S. Bacot from his factors in Charleston. The financial and legal materials from the 1850s include slave lists and, in 1866 and 1867, contracts and other materials relating to the employment of freedmen on the plantation. Other papers consist of several examples of currency issued by South Carolina from 1775 to 1862 and a typed transcription of "The French Refugees," a series of articles about Huguenots in South Carolina, which appeared in the City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser of Charleston in May 1826. This typed transcription was produced at the Southern Historical Collection in 1944 from newspapers that were originally part of this collection, but were subsequently transferred to the Periodicals Department. The Bacots are never directly mentioned in these articles. They were, however, descendants of French emigres and may have been related to the author of the articles, who is identified only as "A Descendant of the Refugees."
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Correspondence relating to various Bacot family members and their relatives, friends, and business associates. Letters in the 1840s are chiefly to Mary H. Brockinton at Mars Bluff Plantation. They discuss social engagements and family affairs. Except for an invitation in 1850 and an exchange of letters of 1 and 18 July 1855 between Peter S. Bacot and his son Richard at school, all letters in the 1850s relate to Peter S. Bacot's business accounts with cotton factors in Charleston, South Carolina. There are three letters in the 1860s: 11 August 1865 to Richard Bacot from a relative in New York about a family visit; 14 October 1865, a public letter announcing the opening of the Jarrot & Bacot Drug Store in Florence; and 16 January 1866, a business letter from suppliers to Jarrot & Bacot. One letter in 1887 announces "Gala Week" at the Ashley Phosphate Company of Charleston.
Folder 1 |
1767; 1845-1850 |
Folder 2 |
1865-1866; 1887 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Financial and legal materials relating to Bacot family members and their relatives. Early material relates to property of Brockinton family members, and includes a list of slaves and other property owned by Mary H. Brockinton on 21 July 1853. Most other items through 1863 relate to the running of the Mars Bluff Plantation. There are several documents in 1866 and 1867 relating to freedmen working at Mars Bluff. These include contracts dated 18 August 1866 that set out their terms of employment and a 7 March 1867 medical services contract between the freedmen and a local physician. Items in the 1870s and 1880s are routine bills and receipts for food and other items.
Folder 3 |
1786; 1851-1863 |
Folder 4 |
1865-1887 |
Nine pieces of paper money issued by South Carolina, 1775-1862; four undated photographs; and a typed transcription, 29 pp., of "The French Refugees," a series of four articles about Huguenots in South Carolina that appeared in the City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser of Charleston, 11-15 May 1826. These articles, signed by "A Descendant of the Refugees," were copied at the Southern Historical Collection in 1944 from newspapers that were originally part of this collection, but were subsequently transferred to the Periodicals Department. The Bacots are never directly mentioned in these articles. They were, however, descendants of French emigres and may have been related to the author of the articles.