A Teachable Moment

One of our student workers who was working in Interlibrary Loan came to me to ask for assistance locating an "article" she needed to retrieve. As I looked at the request, I noticed that the requesting library wanted to borrow 4 microfilmed rolls of the 1850 slave schedules. I told her that they were really wanting to borrow the microfilm (which we do not loan via ILL). She showed that the library had filled in the article line with "slave schedules." I decided to show her what the slave schedules were. I popped up the 1850 Jefferson County, Tennessee slave schedule and showed her how it listed the slave owners and the demographics for each slave. I told her that it did not name the slaves -- just the owners. It really caught her interest, and she began to ask questions. I told her that she could often find the names of the slaves in deeds and in probate records. She was amazed that these records still existed. I'm glad I took the time to show her what had been requested. I hope it may have sparked an interest in genealogical research.

Magnolia Plantation & Gardens

Amy Kime Arner posted a link on Facebook today to an Associated Press article about the slave cabins on Magnolia Plantation. That reminded me of my visit to that plantation about four years ago. When I discovered that I had not placed pictures of my visit online, I decided that it was time to place a few on the blog.

Above: This is one of the slave cabins. I would love to see the restoration that they mentioned. Perhaps I'll be able to do that when NGS visits Charleston in 2011 if I don't make it there before then. More information is available on the Slave Cabin Restoration Project.
This is the plantation house. It was built before the Revolutionary War, according to the Web site. I don't recall how many prior houses the tour guides told us there had been, and I did not see that information on the Web site.
This was a swampy area that I seem to remember being near the slave cabins. It was beautiful. There were alligators sunning themselves on specially placed boards in the midst of these swampy spots.
This is along the Ashley River which borders the property. It's one of my favorite photos from the trip.
Since Magnolia Plantations has absolutely gorgeous gardens, I would be remiss not including a photo of some of the beautiful plants. I chose these lovely blooms.