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Oliver, Shelton, 1801-1870. Shelton Oliver family papers, 1791-1913.

Title: Shelton Oliver family papers, 1791-1913.

The Oliver family papers document the life of a Georgia planting and slaveholding family during the nineteenth century. The papers consist of correspondence, financial and legal records, personal writings and memorabilia, and collected printed material. The entire collection spans the years from 1791 to 1913 but the bulk of the material covers the thirty years between 1840 and 1870. Those records dated before the Civil War include the correspondence of Shelton Oliver and his overseer while Oliver was an absentee planter, bills of sale and appraisements of slaves, cotton transactions, speeches pertaining to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of the 1850s, and correspondence from Shelton's brother Simeon, describing the westward migration into Mississippi. In addition, land deeds from the early nineteenth century document the buying and selling of land that would eventually become the Oliver family plantation, "Woodlawn," in Oglethorpe County, Georgia. While a portion of the Civil War correspondence includes descriptions of battles, raids, and camp life, the majority of these letters detail the conditions of home and plantation life during wartime. Correspondence between Shelton Oliver and the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands testifies to the general level of confusion that plagued the planter and slaveholder in the immediate wake of the war. The vast majority of the postbellum materials is comprised of personal correspondence largely centering around Lizzie Oliver, Shelton and Martha Oliver's daughter, and details her life in female academies, her friendships with other young girls and her relatives, her courting, and her marriage to Dr. W. Marcellus Willingham.

ArchivalResource: 5.0 linear ft. (11 boxes, 2 OP)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/173863160 View