Charles Alfred DeSaussure Papers Inventory (#5064-z)

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

Collection Information

Descriptive Summary Including Abstract

Administrative Information

Contact Information:: Manuscripts Department; CB#3926, Wilson Library; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890; Phone: 919/962-1345; Fax: 919/962-3594; Email: mss@email.unc.edu; URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
Processed by: Kristin Soya
Date Completed: October 2001
Encoded by: Kristin Soya

Descriptive Summary Including Abstract

Title: Charles Alfred DeSaussure Papers (#5064-z)undated

Creator: DeSaussure, Charles Alfred, b. 1846.

Extent: 3 items

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Abstract

Charles Alfred DeSaussure, son of planter Louis McPherson DeSaussure, grew up on his family's plantation in Beaufort County, S.C., at the family's summer home in McPhersonville, S.C., and in the town of Beaufort, S.C. In 1863, he joined the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery Company and fought with them until the end of the Civil War. The collection includes an undated 22-page typed transcription, source unknown, of the memoir that Charles Alfred DeSaussure wrote sometime after the Civil War at the request of his children. The memoir deals primarily with DeSaussure's childhood experiences as a planter's son in antebellum Beaufort County, S.C. He wrote in great detail about the daily plantation life at Woodstock, including crops, how the slaves lived, relationships between slaves and masters, jobs and positions on the plantation, how the southern elite socialized, and what he called southern hospitality. DeSaussure wrote about the differences between life in Beaufort County and at his summer home in the McPhersonville, S.C., pinelands. He also wrote about the role of Episcopal Church in daily life and about the education and pastimes of young men in South Carolina. As a student at the College of Beaufort, he learned as much out of class as in class, including how to swim and sail. Also included are two photocopied maps showing the locations of many of the places mentioned in the memoir.

Language: English.

Administrative Information

Access: No restrictions.

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

Provenance: Received from Lawrence E. Jarrell of High Point, N.C., in June 2001 (Acc. 98986).

Online Catalog Terms

Children--South Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century.

DeSaussure family.

DeSaussure, Charles Alfred, b. 1864.

Education--South Carolina--History--19th century.

Episcopal Church--South Carolina--History--19th century.

Family--South Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century.

Plantation life--South Carolina.

Slavery--South Carolina.

South Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century.

Young men--South Carolina--History--19th century.

Related Collection

Louis M. DeSaussure Plantation Journal (#2251-z), Southern Historical Collection, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Biographical Note

Charles Alfred DeSaussure was born on 21 September 1864 into a prominent Huguenot family of South Carolina. His mother was Jane Hay Hutson, the second wife of Louis McPherson DeSaussure. His father owned a 780-acre plantation known as Woodstock in Beaufort County, S.C. Charles lived at Woodstock for part of the year and spent the other part at the family's summer home in the pinelands of McPhersonville, S.C. When Charles was eleven, his father sold the summer home and bought another one in the town of Beaufort, S.C., so that Charles and his brother Tom could receive a better education. Charles and Tom attended the College of Beaufort, which was founded in 1795 as a preparatory school and junior college for local planter families. Charles was raised in the Episcopal Church. In 1863, he joined the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery Corps and stayed with the unit until the end of the Civil War. After the war, he appears to have married and had children.

Collection Overview

The collection includes an undated 22-page typed transcription, source unknown, of the memoir that Charles Alfred DeSaussure wrote sometime after the Civil War at the request of his children. The memoir deals primarily with DeSaussure's childhood experiences as a planter's son in antebellum Beaufort County, S.C. He wrote in great detail about the daily plantation life at Woodstock, including crops, how the slaves lived, relationships between slaves and masters, jobs and positions on the plantation, how the southern elite socialized, and what he called "southern hospitality." DeSaussure wrote about the differences between life in Beaufort County and at his summer home in the McPhersonville, S.C., pinelands. He also wrote about the role of Episcopal Church in daily life and about the education and pastimes of young men in South Carolina. As a student at the College of Beaufort, he learned as much out of class as in class, including how to swim and sail. Also included are two photocopied maps showing the locations of many of the places mentioned in the memoir.

Description

Papers, undated.

3 items.

Folder 1

Papers