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 Ben Sparkman Plantation Journal #3574-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

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

Purchased from Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. of Rutland, Vermont, in April 1962.

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.

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--South Carolina.
• Corn--South Carolina.
• Georgetown District (S.C.)--History.
• Plantation life--South Carolina.
• Plantations--South Carolina.
• Potatoes--South Carolina.
• Rice--South Carolina.
• Slavery--South Carolina.
• South Carolina--Climate.
• Sparkman, Ben, fl. 1853-1859.

Most of this journal (about 110 pages) is devoted to a "Memorandum of Planting" (1853-1859), noting slave tasks in planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops, and in various other farm-related duties. Brief descriptions of these activities usually distinguish labor performed by men from that of women.

Shorter entries (about 15 pages) include a "Memorandum of the Weather" and accounts showing the rice crop for 1853 through 1858. Places mentioned in the journal include "Wilson's Place," "Black Ground," and "Home Place," all presumably in Georgetown District, South Carolina.

One page of an account labelled "George Town, April 25, 1848" has survived. About 20 other pages that apparently bore a "George Town" heading have been cut out of the volume.