Two ledgers evidently kept by the plantation's overseer from February 1842 though March 1846. The first ledger, titled "Plant. Memorandum for 1843 & 1844"(HM 69629) documents deliveries to and shipments from the plantation from Feb. 1842 through 1846. The second ledger titled "Plant. Receipt & Delivery Book Including List of Slaves from 1st Feb. 1842" (HM 69630) is a log consisting of daily entries detailing weather and everyday works and activities on the plantation from Feb. 1 through March of 1844. The first ledger lists shipped goods, mostly sugar, molasses, and wood, and deliveries -- foodstuffs, clothes, furniture, medicines for the plantation infirmary, garden implements, tools, bricks, staves, iron castings, sugar kettles, parts for the steam engine, and livestock (the latter includes "wild cows" caught in the woods and cows received from "General Jackson's farm in Tennessee.") The ledger also lists the arrival and departure of ships and steamboats, trips to "Town," visits from "Mr Hodge" and "Mr Michel Commajere" and arrivals and assignments of blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers, and hired laborers, mostly Irish and Dutch, as well as sale, trade, and hire of slaves. The second ledger records various stages of sugar production -- from planting to cane cutting and processing; irrigation and construction works on Grand Terre Isle and Isle Bonne, repairs of the steam concentrator, etc. Both ledgers contain numerous mentions of slaves, including slaves who ran away, (a rather frequent occurrence) or were sent off jail in irons. The first manuscript opens and closes with lists of plantation and hired slaves (101 workers above age 12 and 21 children aged 11 and under), that include names, dates of birth and death, (the latter often cites the cause of death), and the way they were acquired. The hired slaves are grouped in "gangs," i.e. a "brickyard gang," "Hodge's town boys," "Mississippi gang," "Alabama gang," and "model farm gang;", also included is a list of slaves "separately hired." (The model farm gang was seized and taken away by the sheriff in March of 1842). Also included is a list of slaves' children. The second volume opens with a "List of Men on Plantation," followed by a list of garden implements and tools assigned to each slave, "List of Mules and Horses," and lists of farming implements, carpenter's tools, engine tools, and blacksmith tools, as well as a capitulation of the net worth of the plantation and slaves ($125,000.00). There are also records of vaccination of the children and home remedies.
