Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

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

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Franklin A. Hudson Diary #2290, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Typed transcript available.

All or part of this collection is available on microfilm from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.

Acquisitions Information

Gift of George Murrell of Bayou Goula, Louisiana, in November 1940.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

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The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Agriculture--Louisiana--History--19th century.
• American diaries--Louisiana.
• Bayou Goula (La.)--Social life and customs.
• Blythewood Plantation (Iberville Parish, La.)
• Corn--Louisiana.
• Enslaved persons--Medical care--Louisiana.
• Hebert, Paul Octave, 1818-1880.
• Hudson, Franklin A., fl. 1852-1871.
• Iberville Parish (La.)--Social life and customs.
• Louisiana--Social life and customs.
• Mississippi River--Description and travel.
• Plantation life--Louisiana.
• Plantations--Louisiana.
• Slave records--Louisiana.
• Slavery--Louisiana.
• Sugar growing--Louisiana--History--19th century.

• George M. Murrell Papers (#2196)

In the 1850s and 1860s, Franklin A. Hudson (fl. 1852-1871), owned and lived at Blythewood Plantation on Bayou Goula in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, near White Castle. He was a neighbor of John Hampden Randolph, who owned Nottoway Plantation.

In 1858 or 1859, Hudson sold half of his interest in Blythewood to Randolph, and the plantation was operated by the two in partnership until 1871, when Randolph acquired full ownership.

(See Postell, Paul E., "John Hampden Randolph," M.A. thesis, L.S.U., 1936.)

The collection consists of seven volumes of a diary kept by Franklin A. Hudson, 1852-1857 and 1859, and of a typed transcription of these volumes. There is no volume in the collection for 1858.

Entries relate chiefly to the cultivation and processing of sugar cane, corn, and other crops such as peas and sweet potatoes. Hudson mentioned other plantation activities, including work on buildings, fences, cooperage, bayous, and roads. He frequently mentioned the weather, and often referred to his overseers.

There also are frequent references to slaves and their care. Entries refer to purchasing slaves' clothing, providing their housing, treating their illnesses, and providing physicians to attend them. There also are references to physicians attending members of Hudson's own family, and to medicines and cures. Hudson mentioned a minister who came frequently to preach to the slaves.

There also are references to social affairs and to neighbors including the Randolphs, the Vaughans, and Louisiana governor Paul Octave Hebert. Hudson wrote of frequent trips on the Mississippi River, giving names of boats and a few details of travel, as well as listing expenses. He also made brief entries giving bare details of visits, traveling by water and otherwise, to Ohio, to New York where his mother lived at Fort Plain, and, in July-August 1859, to Canada.

Hudson occasionally mentioned church attendance while at home and on trips. He kept records of contributions he made to church collections.

Hudson also kept financial accounts in these diaries. Many daily entries list amounts paid out for goods and services, such as "Paid for butter .20," "Charge Overseer for 25 lbs meat at 7 1/2," and "Cash to wife - - - 2.00". In later volumes, in addition to such entries, Hudson kept cash accounts separately in the back of the book, showing amounts received and amounts paid.