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Size | 1 item |
Abstract | Elizafield Plantation on the Altamaha River in Glynn County, Ga., was owned by the white Grant family, coming into possession of Hugh Fraser Grant (1811-1873) in 1833. The collection is Grant's 287-page plantation journal, with entries 1838 dating from to 1861 (chiefly 1838-1858). Lists of names of enslaved people who worked on the plantation are included, including births and those infected by measles in 1852. Journal entries include other records relating to enslaved people, information about planting and farming, accounts with factors, tax return information, miscellaneous crop records, and a few notes on family activities. |
Creator | Elizafield Plantation (Ga.) |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English. |
This collection contains materials that document people claimed as property and reflect the violence and dehumanization of slavery in the U.S. South. Learn more here about how we are revising legacy description for slavery era collections at Wilson Special Collections Library.
Processed by: Shonra Newman, July 1990
Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, 2003
Conscious Editing Work by: Dawne Howard Lucas, July 2020. Updated abstract, subject headings, scope and content note, and historical 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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Elizafield Plantation, a rice plantation based on a workforce of enslaved people located on the Altamaha River in Glynn County, Ga., was owned by the white Grant family. Hugh Fraser Grant (1811-1873) came into possession of the plantation upon the retirement of his father, Robert Grant (1762-1843) in 1833.
Back to TopThis collection consists of Hugh Fraser Grant's 287-page volume for Elizafield Plantation, Glynn County, Ga. The entries, 1838-1861, were made chiefly between 1838 and 1858.
Included in the front and back of the volume are lists of names of enslaved people who belonged to Grant and worked at Elizafield Plantation. Interspersed in the rest of the volume are lists of hoes, axes, and blankets given out to enslaved people; lists of births of enslaved people; and a list (page 161) of enslaved people who had measles in 1852. Seventeen enslaved people apparently died from the disease.
Most of the volume consists of journal entries and records of Grant's accounts with his factors. Included in the journal entries are notations on the weather, planting crops, ploughing fields, and sending rice to factors. Grant occasionally mentioned family events, such as the death of his father or taking his family to the mountains for the summer for his wife's health.
Grant also kept records of cultivation for individual acres, including crops planted and other work completed on them. Other accounts are included in the volume. Pages 6-7 are labelled ""Tax Returns"" and appear to be lists of property owned by Grant made for tax purposes, 1845-1856. Pages 34-35 list how much rice and cotton was grown each year, 1841-1845. Pages 211-212 show rice sales, 1855-1858.
Other entries includes a recipe for cholera medicine (page 192); a copy of an address delivered by H. F. Grant, Captain of the Glynn Rangers, on presenting their colors in 1849 (pages 195-197); and instructions on how to grow rice (page 222).
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