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

                 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                               #247
                 WILLIAM ETHELBERT ERVIN DIARIES
                            Inventory

Abstract:      William Ethelbert Ervin, cotton planter and owner
           of Liberty Hall Plantation in Lowndes County, Miss.
               Two plantation diaries kept by Ervin between 1839
           and 1856, in which he wrote brief entries on farm work
           and the cultivation of cotton, the weather, buying and
           selling of slaves and their care, trips to town and
           court, and his attendance at church.  Also included
           are lists of slave birth and death dates, accounts of
           goods sold and notes settled, annual total weights of
           cotton and credits to hands for amounts picked, and
           records of the saw mill and grist mill.  In 1847,
           Ervin included a list of rules to be followed by
           slaves on his plantation covering leaves of absence,
           duties of husbands and wives, settling of quarrels
           among themselves, and a curfew.  The list includes
           punishments that were to be carried out when the rules
           were broken.  After 1851, there are also records of
           Ervin's saw and grist mills.

On-line Catalog Terms:
   Agriculture--Mississippi--History--19th century.
   Cotton growing--Mississippi--History--19th century.
   Diaries--Mississippi--History--19th century.
   Flour-mills--Mississippi--History--19th century.
   Liberty Hall Plantation (Lowndes County, Miss.).
   Lowndes County (Miss.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
   Lumbering--Mississippi--History--19th century.
   Plantation life--Mississippi.
   Plantation owners--Mississippi.
   Plantations--Mississippi.
   Sawmills--Mississippi--History--19th century.
   Slave records--Mississippi.
   Slave-trade--Mississippi.
   Slavery--Mississippi.
   Slaves--Mississippi--Social conditions.

Size:      4 items.

Provenance:    Received from the Armstrong family of Columbus,
               Mississippi, in 1937, and from Caro Armstrong of
               Columbus, Mississippi, in April 1972.

Access:        No restrictions.

Processing Note:   This inventory is based on two inventories
                   previously compiled by members of the Southern
                   Historical Collection staff.

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

                        BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

   William Ethelbert Ervin (1809-1860) owned Liberty Hall
Plantation, near Columbus, in Lowndes County, Mississippi near
Columbus.  He was born to William and Eliza Dick Ervin in Sumter
District, South Carolina on 28 September 1809.  The family moved
to Lowndes County, Mississippi, about 1832.  His father died
there in 1839.

   William E. Ervin built Liberty Hall in 1835 on the east side
of the Tombigbee River.  After his home was built he returned to
Sumter, South Carolina, and married Sarah McGee Kennedy.

                           DESCRIPTION

   This collection consists of two plantation journals kept by
William Ethelbert Ervin at Liberty Hall Plantation between 1839
and 1856.  The entries are very brief and note cultivation of
cotton and other crops, hauling cotton to the Tombigbee River for
shipment, cutting logs, killing hogs, and other activities.  He
also noted the weather each day.

   Ervin included information on buying and selling slaves,
hiring slaves owned by others, providing slaves with blankets,
hats, and other clothing, and paying slaves for their "Christmas
work."  He made lists of slave birth (and some death) dates.  In
1847, he wrote out the rules for slave conduct and punishments in
case the rules were broken.  There were rules for how to handle
quarrels, duties of husbands and wives, absence from the
plantation, and the obligation of slaves to be in their quarters
by 9 p.m.

   Ervin also mentioned his trips to town and attendance at court
and at sales.  He was a devout Christian and regularly attended
church and Sunday school.  On 28 February 1850, Ervin mentioned
that four of his children were very sick, one with typhoid fever.

   In addition to the daily entries, Ervin kept lists and
memoranda on his farming activities.  At the end of each year, he
entered an account of total weights of cotton, sometimes
crediting each of his hands with the amount they had picked. 
There are pages of miscellaneous accounts and memoranda including
twists of tobacco sold to individuals and notes settled.  After
February 1851, the diaries contain records of his saw mill and
grist mill.  These entries continue through April 1854. 
Following that date, there are some miscellaneous accounts
through 1 January 1856. 

   Volume 2 is available in typed transcription.

Folder 1       Volume 1, 1839-1845
       2       Volume 2, 1846-1856
       3       Typed transcription of volume 2