Volume I, 1794-1803, HCHS R27 (269 images)
Volume II, 1819-1834, HCHS R28
(106 images)
Mary Jeske's initial appraisal of the two volumes was the basis upon which the Archives offered to help conserve them through scanning:
Sally asked me to respond to your query regarding the account book
for
the 1790s at Ho. Co. Historical Society. (Please note I only
spent 2-3
hours skimming through the book, so this is by no means a definitive
or
complete description.) There is also a book for the 1820s
but I didn't
get to look at it closely as it is in very poor condition (moldy
and
falling apart) and they don't want anyone to use it until a
preservationist does something with it.
Basically, it is an account book kept by an overseer (I would assume
the
head overseer) on Doughoregan Manor, from May 27, 1794 to January
29,
1803. There is no title page and no title on the cover and
no
indication of the name of the overseer (though I am pretty sure
who it
was--see below). It is a bound volume of unnumbered folios--I
would
estimate maybe 150 pages. Each page begins with heading "Doughoregan
Manor." There are multiple dated entries to a page--not every
day but
2-3 entries per week. The book continues throughout the year
(unlike
Charley's farm journal, which he kept only during the months he
was on
Doughoregan) indicating that the overseer lived on Doughoregan year
round.
The entries in the book are for money spent and received by the
overseer, and periodically he will have a notation indicating he
has
settled with Mr. Carroll. He does not keep separate Dr. and
Cr. sides
and there are no totals (even when he settles with Carroll), but
he does
indicate what is Dr. and what is Cr. He seems to credit himself
with
amounts he paid and debit amounts received.
The entries shed light on a myriad of subjects of interest to
historians. There is of course information about simply managing
a
plantation the size of Doughregan. There is also information about
the
local economy. And of course lots of information about the
slaves.
Who is working where and what they are doing. He notes giving
slaves
tools to use (evidently to keep track of them). He notes money
paid for
weaving cloth, money received for wheat, for rents (but only
occasionally suggesting this was not his normal job), money paid
for
work done, services, goods, etc. He notes slave births and
deaths
(though not sales, which he evidently did not handle). Slaves
got paid
extra for working Sundays and for doing work above ordinary routines
(ie. for working at the forge). There is what amounts to a
slave
inventory in 1795/1796. It is a list of shoes given out, and
it lists
the slaves in family groups by quarter (but does not give ages).
At
first I thought the list was incomplete becasue it only lists 4
quarters
and 188 slaves, but this confirms what you write in "English Aristocrat"
that he cut the slave force (I need to find out more about that;
I
assume your 1800 figure is from the census?) . The other
quarters may
have been converted to tenements--there are several leases recorded
during the 1780s and 1790s that may be new tenements carved out
of
former slave quarters. With time and work I can sort all this out.
The overseer I am nearly certain was James Shaw who came to Doughoregan
as CCC's clerk in Sept. 1793 at a salary of 75 the first year and
100
the second. There is an entry in the overseer journal, Oct
5, 1794 that
reads: "Cash Dr to Charles Carroll of Carrollton Esq. which was
Omitted
to give him Credit the 15th of Augt last I now charge this sum to
J.
Shaw's private account."
According to CCC's farm journal Shaw was engaged as his clerk on
Aug.
31, 1793 (later names as James) and started working on Doughoregan
Sept.
13. There are subsequent instructions to Shaw in the Journal.
It would
be easy enough to compare CCC's instructions to actions taken by
the
over in his account book to verify that it was indeed's Shaw's book.
---email to ecp, 2/28/02
There are two cds. The first contains the two account books in a self-executable, searchable file produced by Webcompiler. This self-executable was created to ease the ability to move through the images more quickly by using the search function provided. Simply activate the search for the volume (i.e. R27 or R28) and a hyperlinked index of pages will appear in the column to the left. Images can be printed from the compiled version, but because they are jpgs, they must be downloaded locally first and printed out using a third party viewer/printer such as IRFAN.
The Second cd (which must be purchase separately) is in a standard html format that allows for printing individual images with a browser other than IE, such as OPERA, which in turn, permits the use of a third party viewer/printer such as IRFAN. To use the standard html version, use windows explorer and activate main.html.
3/2/2003
ecp