Creator: Carter, Farish, 1780-1861.
Collection number: 2230
View finding aid.
Abstract: Farish Carter was a planter, land speculator, and entrepreneur of Scottsborough Plantation, near Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Ga., and owner of a plantation at Coosawattee, Murray County, Ga. Carter married Eliza McDonald, sister of Charles J. McDonald (1793-1860), and had five children: Mary Ann (d. 1844), Catherine (d. 1851), James Farish (b. 1821), Samuel McDonald, and Benjamin Franklin (d. 1856). The collection is primarily business papers, 1830-1860, and some family correspondence. Most papers relate to Carter’s buying, selling, and renting land in Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee; his financial interest in New Hope, a sugar plantation in Louisiana; his part ownership of the Coweta Falls Manufacturing Company, a textile mill in Columbus, Ga.; his buying, selling, and hiring out of slaves; his investments in railroads, banks, gold mining, steamboats, toll bridges, ferries, mills, and other ventures; and his and his sons’ operations of plantations in Georgia and Alabama.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: The collection primarily documents Carter’s business activities, including the buying, selling, and hiring-out of slaves. Letters also cover topics such as the treatment of slaves (1825); problems of slave management (1830-1850); news of house servants and field hands (1851-1858); effects of an ordinance passed in Marietta, Georgia, concerning African Americans’ autonomy to hire out their services and relating to their residences (1854); and marriage customs among slaves (1854). Financial and legal materials include bills of sale for slaves (1812, 1821); a certificate of character for a slave (1830); bills for hire of slaves (1840); and terms for hire of slaves (1850). The papers also document Carter’s involvement in legal controversies over ownership of slaves in Florida. Microfilm available.