Manuscripts Department
           Library of the University of North Carolina
                         at Chapel Hill

                 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                             #916-z
                       BACOT FAMILY PAPERS
                            Inventory

Abstract:      The Bacot family, 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.
               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 the plantation, and to Mary H. Brockinton, a
           relative who lived at Mars Bluff.  Topics include the
           sale of cotton through factors in Charleston,
           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 are also a small number of
           items relating to the Jarrot & Bacot Drug Store in
           Florence, 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.

Online Catalog Terms:
   Agricultural laborers--South Carolina.
   Bacot, Peter S., fl. 1850s-1860s.
   Brockinton, Mary H., fl. 1840s
   Charleston (S.C.)--Economic conditions--19th century.
   Commission merchants--South Carolina.
   Cotton--South Carolina.
   Darlington District (S.C.)--History--19th century.
   Drugstores--South Carolina--History--19th century.
   Family--South Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century.
   Florence (S.C.)--Economic conditions--19th century.
   Freedmen--South Carolina.
   Huguenots--South Carolina.
   Jarrot & Bacot Drug Store (Florence, S.C.).
   Mars Bluff Plantation (Florence, S.C.).
   Money--South Carolina.
   Plantation life--South Carolina.
   Plantation owners--South Carolina.
   Slavery--South Carolina.
   South Carolina--Agriculture [local heading]

Size:      About 90 items.

Provenance:    Received from Emma Bacot of Florence, South
               Carolina, in October 1944.

Access:        No restrictions.

Related Collections:   PETER BROCKINGTON BACOT PAPERS (#2742).

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

Table of Contents:
   Introduction
   Series Descriptions
     Series 1. Correspondence
     Series 2. Financial and Legal Materials
     Series 3. Other Items

                          INTRODUCTION

   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.

   This 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 emigr‚s and may have been related to the
author of the articles, who is identified only as "A Descendant
of the Refugees."

   The collection is organized as follows:

       Series 1.  Correspondence
       Series 2.  Financial and Legal Materials
       Series 3.  Other Items

                       SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series 1.  Correspondence
   1767; 1845-1866; 1887.  About 30 items.
   Arrangement:  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
       2           1865-1866; 1887

Series 2.  Financial and Legal Materials
   1786; 1851-1887.  About 50 items.
   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
       4           1865-1887

Series 3.  Other Items
   1775-1862.  10 items.

       Nine pieces of paper money issued by South Carolina,
1775-1862, 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 emigr‚s and may have been related to the
author of the articles.

Folder 5           South Carolina paper money
       6           "The French Refugees"