Frederick Jackson papers, 1865 Apr. 13-July 10.

ArchivalResource

Jackson, Frederick, 1841-1885. Frederick Jackson papers, 1865 Apr. 13-July 10.

Frederick Jackson papers, 1865 Apr. 13-July 10.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/271701660

Letters, from the Spring and early Summer 1865, describe efforts of a young man from the Boston area to grow sea island cotton on St. Helena Island in Beaufort County, S.C.; this collection of family letters discusses political opinions and contemporary events in both Massachusetts and South Carolina at the close of the Civil War, and the challenges Jackson faced farming in the lowcountry before he sold out and left South Carolina by 1866. The military occupation of the Beaufort, S.C., area from 1861 to 1865 by Union troops resulted in the "Port Royal Experiment," an effort by Northern philanthropists, clergymen, and educators to aid the newly-liberated slaves. In Mar. 1863, the government auctioned delinquent tax lands abandoned by South Carolinians who had fled the sea islands. Edward S. Philbrick, one of the Northern superintendents working with the freedmen, raised capital from Boston businessmen and bought one third of the property on St. Helena Island for little more than a dollar an acre. Included in the Philbrick purchase was Pine Grove plantation, which had belonged to the heirs of William Fripp. In 1863 and 1864, William C. Gannett, later a prominent New England clergyman, ran Pine Grove under Philbrick's ownership. In 1865, Frederick Jackson purchased the Pine Grove property from Philbrick with plans to cultivate sea island cotton. Correspondents include his sister Anna Louisa Jackson (who usually signed her letters as "Dorothy"), his father, Edmund Jackson, and William C. Gannett, and his girlfriend, Harriet Pierce "Hattie" Allen who had spent time in antebellum Charleston, S.C. Topics include the assassination of Pres. Abraham Lincoln; opinion of Andrew Johnson who was hoped to be less moderate than Lincoln; capture of Jefferson Davis; his payments made to African American freedmen working under the task system; advantage to New Englanders of extending the vote to freedmen; and challenge of managing his farming operations when freedmen hoped to buy the land at a lower rate than Jackson's purchase price.

53 items.

University of South Carolina, System Library Service, University Libraries