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Collection Number: 03213-z

Collection Title: Elizafield Plantation Record, 1838-1861 (bulk 1838-1858)

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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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.
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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 Elizafield Plantation Record #3213-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alternate Form of Material
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 .
Provenance
Received from Albert V. House of Harpur College, Endicott, N.Y., in May 1956.
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.
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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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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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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.

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This 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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Contents list

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1 item.
Folder 1

Plantation record

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