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

                  SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                              #305-z
                    JAMES HENRY HAMMOND LETTERS
                             Inventory

Abstract: James Henry Hammond, lawyer and newspaper editor of
Columbia, S.C., who married Catherine E. FitzSimons, daughter of
a wealthy Charleston merchant, in 1831, thus acquiring the
"Silver Bluff" cotton plantation on the Savannah River.  The
strongly sectionalist Hammond was elected U.S. senator in 1834
and governor of South Carolina 1842.  Again elected to the U.S.
Senate in 1857, he resigned his seat upon Lincoln's election.
          Letters from Hammond to his wife Catherine, chiefly
about the politics influencing his unsuccessful bid for governor
in 1840; social and household matters in Columbia; plantation
life at Silver Bluff; and family affairs.  Also included is a
critique of the work of furniture designer Duncan Phyfe.

Index Terms:Columbia (S.C)--Social life and customs--19th
            century.
          Cotton growing--South Carolina.
          Hammond, Catherine E. FitzSimons, fl. 1831-1845.
          Hammond, James Henry, 1807-1864.
          House furnishings--History--19th century.
          Phyfe, Duncan, ca. 1768-1854.
          Plantations--South Carolina.
          Silver Bluff Plantation (Beaufort District, S.C.).
          Slavery--South Carolina.
          South Carolina--Governors--Elections.

Size:     12 items.

Provenance:  Received from Eve Benton of South Carolina prior to
1940.

Access:   No restrictions.

Related Collections: James Henry Hammond Papers, Library of
                       Congress
                     James Henry Hammond Papers, South           
                         Carolina Library, University of South   
                         Carolina

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

                            DESCRIPTION

          Twelve letters, all from Hammond to his wife, Catherine
E. FitzSimons Hammond.

          The earliest letter, written in 1831, describes family
tensions over Hammond's recent marriage and a disagreement over
his father-in-law's estate.  An 1834 letter was written during
his campaign for the Senate seat he eventually won.  In an 1836
letter Hammond mentions health problems and his desire to give up
his Senate seat and go to Europe.  Several letters, written in
1840, document Hammond's disgust with party politics during the
South Carolina governor's election, which he lost.  Hammond also
spent time in New York that same year buying household
furnishings, which he described in detail.  These letters include
a critique of the New York furniture maker Duncan Phyfe, whose
designs Hammond declared overpriced and "behind the times."
Letters dated 1842 to 1845 deal chiefly with plantation matters.

Folder 1  1831-1845