Z 0175.000 Aventine Plantation Diary

Plantation diary of Aventine Plantation, Adams County, owned by Thomas R. Shields. The daily entries cover January 13-December 31, 1857; January 1-23, 1858; and January 3-December 31, 1859. The entries in 1857 and 1858 seem to have been made by an overseer, Patrick Francis McGovern, and those in 1859 by Charles Sauters. The daily entries concern the kind and amount of work, treatment, punishment, food, clothing, illness, births, deaths, and general welfare of the slaves and livestock. Daily records were kept of the amount of cotton picked by each slave. The amount of cotton and corn made, the visits of the owner, and many other details of plantation life were recorded carefully and in detail. The volume is 18 cm. by 30 cm. and contains 217 pages.