Manigault family papers, 1824-1897.

Creator: Manigault family.
Collection number: 484
View finding aid.

Abstract: The Manigault family of Charleston, S.C., and plantations in the Berkeley District, S.C., and on Argyle Island in the Savannah River, Ga., included Charles, merchant and rice planter; and his sons Gabriel Edward, planter, physician, and curator

of the Museum of Natural History at the College of Charleston; and Louis, planter. The collection is chiefly plantation records of the Silk Hope (Berkeley District, S.C.) and the Gowrie and East Hermitage plantations (Argyle Island, Ga.). These volumes contain information on slaves (including, in volume 5, a photograph of a runaway slave), rice growing, market conditions, the weather, and other topics. Other items include papers of Charles Manigault, including a will and essays on slavery and other topics and a manuscript autobiography of Gabriel Edward Manigualt, detailing his studies in medical schools in Europe and at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, and his Confederate army career; and an album, 1861-1868. There are also papers of Louis Manigault, containing letters, bits of a wartime diary, wartime clippings, and other papers related to his service as a Confederate surgeon and to Joseph Jones (1833-1896) under whom he served.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Records contain information on slaves, slave auctions, and runaways. Volumes 1-5 contain documentation of enslaved individuals and free blacks on different plantations from 1833-1877, including allocations of clothing, medical treatment, and their movement among the different properties (Folders 1-6). Folder 3 contains a runaway advertisement for an enslaved woman named Dolly, including a photograph.

Folder 9 also contains a draft of an essay entitled “The Close of the War–The Negro, etc”.

Materials from this collection have been digitized and are available online. Click here to link to the finding aid for this collection and to access the digitized content.