Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#41
EVERARD GREEN BAKER DIARIES
Inventory
Abstract: Everard Green Baker, cotton planter in Jefferson,
Panola, and Hinds Counties, Miss.; and husband of
Laura Lavinia Alexander (1834-1860) of Moss Hill,
Adams County, Miss.
Diary kept by Baker between 1849 and 1876. In it,
he recorded information about farming activities,
including the cultivation of cotton and corn; the
activities of his family and growth of his children;
events in the lives of his slaves, including sickness,
religious events, and marriages; and his own religious
and personal beliefs, particularly those relating to
health and diet. Baker was interested in medicines
and cures, and recorded illnesses of his family and
slaves, and remedies used to cure them. Also included
are a volume of food recipes, instructions relating to
chores around the plantation, and remedies for
illnesses; a Baker family genealogy; and other items.
Online Catalog Terms:
Agriculture--Mississippi--History--19th century.
Baker, Everard Green, b. 1826.
Baker family.
Baker, Laura Lavinia, 1834-1860.
Child rearing--Mississippi--History--19th century.
Cotton growing--Mississippi--History--19th century.
Diaries--Mississippi--History--19th century.
Family--Mississippi--Social life and customs--History--
19th century.
Folk medicine--Mississippi--History--19th century.
Hinds County (Miss.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
Jefferson County (Miss.)--Social life and customs--19th
century.
Panola County (Miss.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
Plantation life--Mississippi.
Plantation owners--Mississippi--Diaries.
Plantation owners--Mississippi--Religious life.
Plantations--Mississippi.
Recipes--Mississippi--History--19th century.
Slaveholders--Mississippi--Religious life.
Slavery--Mississippi.
Slaves--Mississippi--Religious life.
Slaves--Mississippi--Social conditions
Size: 8 items (0.5 linear feet).
Provenance: Received from Victor Baker and Francis Baker of
Natchez, Mississippi, and from Robert Baker of
Napoleonville, Louisiana, sometime before 1940.
Access No restrictions.
Copyright Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or
their descendants, as stipulated by United States
copyright law.
Table of Contents
Biographical Note
Description
Shelf List
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Everard Green Baker (b. 1826) of Jefferson County, Panola
County, and Hinds County, Mississippi, was the son of Thomas
Baker and Elizabeth Green. He married Laura Lavinia Alexander
(1834-1860), daughter of Amos and Lavinia Alexander of Moss Hill,
Adams County, on 6 September 1849. He married Sallie Flemming
around 1863. He had at least thirteen children, as recorded
below:
Everard Green Baker m. 1849 Laura Lavinia Alexander
--Walter (b. 1850)
--Everard (b. 1853)
--Edith (b. ca. 1855)
--Lolly (1856-1861)
--Eliza (b. 1858)
--Thomas Francis (b. 1859)
m. ca. 1863 Sallie Flemming
--Fred (b. 1863)
--Carrie Louisa (1865-1866)
--Alice Jeannette (b. 1867)
--Robert Lee (b. 1868)
Martha (b. 1868)
(twins)
--Son (name not known b. 1870)
--Daughter (name not known b. 1872)
Baker was probably a small cotton planter before the Civil War
and appears not to have owned a large number of slaves. He moved
several times and occupied Bryant Place in Panola County during
his most prosperous period. He lived for a while in the Natchez
area, probably in Jefferson County, and had family there,
including his brother, Thomas Francis Baker (1825-1892), and his
brother's wife, Martha Young Payne Baker.
DESCRIPTION
This collection consists of several volumes containing the
diary Everard Green Baker kept between 1849 and 1876, and a
volume containing remedies for illnesses, recipes for food, and
instructions for growing vegetables, curing meat, etc. Also
included is a genealogical table of the Baker family of Jefferson
County, Mississippi, a copy of the will of Elizabeth Green, 1833,
and typed transcriptions of the volumes.
Volume 1 contains remedies for illnesses and recipes. Volumes
2, 3, and 4 contain diary entries. Volume 2 covers the period
January 1849 to 4 July 1854; volume 3 covers the period July 1854
to February 1858; and volume 4 covers the period March 1858 to
January 1876. Typescript 1 contains volumes 1, 2, and 3, and
typescript 2 contains volume 4.
The diary begins with Baker moving to his new home, Richland,
believed to be in Jefferson County, Mississippi, on 21 January
1849. He described his daily activities, particularly social
ones such as hunting, dining, and visiting with neighbors, and
events in his neighbor's lives such as marriages and deaths.
Baker also wrote about his personal beliefs and feelings on many
different subjects. In 1849, he was reading works of Dr.
Johnson, and he analyzed these in his diary.
Baker had relatives in the area whom he visited frequently.
His brother Thomas lived close by and married Martha Payne on 5
June 1849. He also mentioned an Uncle A. and Aunt S. (Sarah?).
His uncle and aunt had a young woman named Laura staying with
them, and, in March 1849, Baker began recording in his diary his
love for Laura. On 6 September 1849, he married Laura Lavinia
Alexander of Moss Hill in Adams County. In their early months of
marriage they went on frequent visits to Moss Hill and to his
brother Thomas's house.
Several times in 1849, Baker mentioned going to visit an
Indian camp in the neighborhood. One time, he escorted a party
of ladies there, and they met Chief Billy Hunt, apparently the
leader at the camp.
During the first few years of his journal, Baker occasionally
mentioned farm work and slaves; however, he wrote much more about
his social events and activities. He wrote more personally about
his slaves than is typical in many farm journals, including such
items as the description of the deathbed of a young girl slave
who died of worms in 1850.
After the first year of marriage, Baker wrote that he intended
to live with his brother Thomas for a year and allow him the use
of his slaves, as neither had enough slaves to make large farming
operations profitable. Thomas also owed money to Baker, which he
hoped to pay back under this arrangement. Laura and Baker had
their first child on 30 June 1850.
In 1852, Baker and Laura moved to a new home, probably in
Panola County, Mississippi. Baker described the surrounding
country as a swamp. He wrote increasingly about farm operations
after the move. The chief crops were corn and cotton. He was
interested in medicines and remedies and included detailed
descriptions in his diary of illnesses and treatments that were
tried on his family and slaves. He continued to
include personal information about slaves in his diary, such as
his efforts to make their Christmas holiday pleasant, their good
work during one of his illnesses, and an obituary for an older
slave who died of diarrhea and dropsy. On 26 May 1854, he
recounted a story about a slave who stabbed an overseer twice
because the man was going to whip him, and how the overseer in
turn had stabbed the slave 25 times.
In July 1854, Baker purchased a residence in town and moved
his family there. He felt it was better than living in the swamp
where there was no social life. On 30 December 1854, he wrote
that he had exchanged plantations with Thad Sorsby, a neighbor of
his in the swamp, also getting his house in town. This
apparently allowed him to move his slaves from the swamp closer
to town. He was happy about this, since it would afford his
slaves the opportunity to go to church. Baker became
increasingly pious during these years, frequently writing long
entries on his religious feelings. He also recorded the text and
the preacher from Sunday services in his diary.
By 1855, Baker and Laura had three children, Walter, Everard
(Nevy), and Edith. Baker wrote about their growth and
development in his diary. Periodically he would weigh and
measure his family.
On 7 September 1856, Baker wrote that he had purchased the
Bryant Place. The family moved there, and, after this time, his
farming operations were on a larger scale. He described picking,
ginning, and pressing cotton. He also raised cattle and hogs.
He continued to write about the health of everyone on the
plantation and remedies to treat them. On 20 September 1857,
Baker mentioned that two of his slaves were getting married. He
performed the ceremony and played the violin while they danced.
In 1858, Baker ran for the office of policeman in Beat No. 4
and won. During 1859, he periodically mentioned attending police
court. Around this time, he made references to going to hear
preaching at the campground. On 11 September, he mentioned a
slave meeting at the campground. Baker frequently wrote in his
diary about trying to lead an upright, Christian life.
In the spring of 1860, there was a great deal of sickness at
the plantation. Baker's wife, Laura, died on 2 July. This was a
great source of grief to Baker, and, for several years
afterwards, he wrote in his diary about his depressed state. He
had six children, and initially thought of giving the youngest,
Franky, to Mrs. A. (his mother-in-law?) as he felt he could not
be properly taken care of at the plantation. However, this plan
ended with an argument between Mrs. A. and Baker. He eventually
took Edith, Lolly, Eliza, and Franky, the four youngest children,
to his brother Thomas's house to be cared for, with two servants
to look after them. Lolly died in September 1861, and Baker
moved the remaining three children to Mrs. A's house.
It was about this time that Baker began writing frequently
about his resolve to be moderate in his eating habits. He had
always had a weak digestive system, and he felt by eating only
certain foods and by eating lightly he could cure his disorders.
He mentioned different diets he tried. This was part of his
larger philosophy that following the natural order of things
would result in a longer, happier life. Eating too much, or
eating bad foods, was not following the natural order.
In diary entries written between 1861 and 1865, Baker
occasionally mentioned the Civil War. In 1862, he became fearful
that the Union army would cut him off from contact with his
children, so he moved them back to his plantation. Also in 1862,
his horses were taken by the Union army and his cotton was burned
by the Confederate army. In 1863, he served in the Confederate
army. He was worried about the miserable condition of the
country and saw ruin ahead.
Sometime during the Civil War, Baker married Sallie Flemming.
He eventually had seven children with her, although one girl died
in infancy. By the end of the diary, Baker had had thirteen
children, two of whom had died.
In 1865, Baker wrote a little about emancipation and his
efforts to use freedmen to work his plantations. This apparently
did not work. Initially, his former slaves remained with him but
eventually they left. The rest of the diary documents his
efforts to improve his financial situation. In 1866, he sold his
plantation and moved to Hinds County. He and his older boys
worked in the fields to produce cotton. He mentioned in July
1872 that he had learned more about the practical aspects of
planting during that year than in any other.
On 21 July 1867, Baker mentioned that he had attended a "negro
preaching & ordination," where he heard some "excellent" remarks
by Marion Dunbar, a black man from Jackson.
The last entry in the diary is dated 30 January 1876.
Folder 1 Genealogy
2 Volume 1: Remedies
Volume 2: 1849-1854
Volume 3: 1854-1858
3 Volume 4: 1858-1876
4 Typescript 1: Volumes 1-3
5 Typescript 2: Volume 4
SHELF LIST
Box 1 (only)