John Walker was a cotton and wheat planter and silkworm grower of King and Queen County, Va. The son of Humphry and Frances (Temple) Walker, John married Margaret Watkins Shepherd in 1829, and had two surviving children, Watson (1834-1900) and Melville (1846-1904). Walker was an active member of the Methodist Church and held several public offices, including overseer of the poor and surveyor of roads for King and Queen County. The collection includes a journal, 1824-1867, kept by Walker for his Chatham Hill plantation, and a Walker family genealogical chart. The journal documents religious life, plantation finances, and slavery in and around King and Queen County. Information appears on camp meetings, church business, and Methodist preachers. Also documented are Walker's income and expenditures from cotton and wheat planting and his silkworm business, and his legal actions as executor of his father's and of other estates. The journal is particularly rich as a source on slave genealogy, activities, and slave/owner relations, as it often records vital statistics, family relationships, and the purchase and sale of slaves. Several entries provide information on slaves holding skilled positions outside the household or fields. Entries also provide many examples of slave resistance. Also documented is Samuel Thomson's method of botanic medicine, which Walker adopted in the 1830s. Little information appears on family or community life. The family tree documents the Walker family from the mid-1660s through the 1950s.
