William Massie: "Crop Memorandum" plantation ledger, 1845-1862

Containers:

Box 3

Scope and content:

Bound volume, 406 pages, approximately 22x33cm, containing Crop Memorandum entries by William Massie for Pharsalia, Level Green, Montebello and Tyro plantations and orchards, arranged by location with chronological entries. The entries vary in length and detail. Crops mentioned include wheat, tobacco, corn, hay, rye, oats, apples, cherries, and various others; also there are entries about shearing sheep, killing hogs, smoking meat, cheese production, and other livestock. Some entries include details of how many "hands" were needed, indicating the labor of different enslaved people, and at times Massie lists names of enslaved laborers or their enslavers that he had hired to supplement the work of the "plantation hands." For example, a set of entries for 1850 July 6-8 tallies the different groups and calculates their efficiency, with the total of "harvest hands brought over: 104", indicating the combined numbers of days it took the workers to complete the harvesting. Massie's notes evaluate the work: "from the above it will be seen that Nelson Monroe did greatly better than either Wm S. Bands or James Monroe, but Nelson's help hands were greatly better than Bands' were, and James Monroe's help hands, and plantation hands, were all better than Bands', so upon the whole, Tyro did more than any." The first few pages contain "a list of dates when each of Wm Massie's wheat harvests has been commenced, from 1817 inclusive. Also the times when sown, the quantity made, the yield to the bushel sown, and the quality of the crop."

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