Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the John Boyd Diary and Account Book #1096-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Typed transcription of entries made in 1850, 1859, and 1866 available.

All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.

Acquisitions Information

Gift of Edward D. Seghers of New Orleans, Louisiana, on 17 April 1946.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Shonra Newman, October 1990

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, December 2009

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.

• American diaries--Louisiana.
• Bayou Lettsworth (La.)--19th century--Social life and customs.
• Boyd, John, 1783-1858.
• Louisiana--Description and travel.
• Mississippi River--Description and travel.
• Plantations--Louisiana
• Point Coupee Parish (La.)--Social life and customs.
• River boats--Mississippi River--History--19th century.
• Williams, Henry T., fl. 1840.

• Edward D. Seghers Papers (#1097-z)
• Henry L. Duffel Papers (#1098)

John Boyd was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on 18 February 1783, and died on 30 July 1858 at his plantation, "Oak Grove." He owned a plantation on Bayou Lettsworth in Pointe Coupee Parish, La., which may or may not have been this "Oak Grove." He may also have owned property near Donaldsonville, La. One of his daughters, Margaret Bruce, married Col. Henry T. Williams of Montgomery County, Md., and the Williams's daughter, Clara D., married Lt. Edward D. Seghers of the Confederate Army.

The collection is a diary with brief, irregular entries, 1 January to 25 June 1850. Expense accounts and planting records were entered in the book in 1859 and 1866, and additional expense accounts were apparently added in 1870 and 1871. The diary begins with a description of a trip Boyd took in 1850 to New Orleans. Boyd also noted in January of that year that he traveled up the Mississippi River to his plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish and briefly described the condition of his slaves and land. Other entries concern the weather, visits to and from his neighbors, various trips he made by boat, and, in May, descriptions of the water level in a river, possibly the Mississippi, which rose and fell after a series of storms.