South Caroliniana Library at USC
Researchers from around the world visit the South Caroliniana Library to study the books, newspapers, manuscripts, pamphlets, serials, maps, audio recordings, and visual images preserved there.
Researchers from around the world visit the Caroliniana Library to study the books, newspapers, manuscripts, pamphlets, serials, maps, audio recordings, and visual images preserved therein. Four major research divisions of the library include: Books (Published Materials), Manuscripts, and University Archives. In addition to these, the library holds a rich collection of Visual Materials and Oral Histories. The Library welcomes researchers at its main building located on the Horseshoe.
Holdings of Manuscripts Division include letters, diaries, and other unpublished papers of families and individuals; genealogical collections; broadsides; plantation account books; non-USC dissertations dealing with S.C. history; and information collected by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), regarding folklore, local history, etc. The Division also holds records of churches, clubs, and other organizations, as well as business records of small country stores, large textile mills, and other concerns. For more information, please contact Mr. Henry Fulmer, Curator of Manuscripts Division, at fulmerh@mailbox.sc.edu.
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Featured Collection:Heyward Family Papers, 1703-1975
Background
Edward Barnwell Heyward, born in Beaufort, S.C., on 4 May 1826, was the son of Charles Heyward (1802-1866) and Emma Barnwell Heyward (1806-1835). Heyward spent much of his youth at Rose Hill plantation where he was born and in his family’s home in Charleston. His graduation from South Carolina College in 1845 was followed by an extended trip to Europe. In 1850 Heyward married Lucy Green Izard, of Columbia. Only one of their four children, Walter Izard (b. 1851), survived infancy. Before his wife’s death in 1858, Heyward purchased Goodwill plantation on the Wateree River in lower Richland District, South Carolina.
Heyward Family Papers, 1703-1975
The bulk of this collection of one hundred sixty-five manuscripts and one volume covers the period from 1861 until 1870. Civil War letters include family letters of Catherine “Tat” Maria Clinch (1828-1870) who became E.B. Heyward’s second wife in 1863. Barnwell Heyward continued planting at Goodwill for the first two years of the Civil War. The labor force at Goodwill increased significantly when his father’s slaves were relocated to Goodwill from plantations on the Combahee River in Colleton District, South Carolina.
Heyward’s only military experience consisted of service in a homeguard unit in lower Richland District. But in January 1864 he traveled to Richmond to seek a military appointment. Heyward received a commission as a lieutenant in the Engineer branch and was assigned to Chisolmville in Beaufort District. He was stationed near his father’s rice plantations and made frequent visits to inspect the properties and to confer with overseer S.H. Boineau.
After the defeat of the Confederacy, Barnwell Heyward returned to Goodwill plantation and resumed planting. His father died the following year. Many of the slaves who had lived at Goodwill during the war returned to the Heyward plantations in Colleton District. In 1866 Barnwell Heyward moved his family to Charleston and made plans to begin planting rice on Amsterdam and Lewisburg, the two plantations that he inherited from his father. These plantations contained 8,000 acres of rice fields and 1,500 acres of adjoining lands.
Reconstruction-era letters discuss agriculture, adjustment to free labor, and unrest among freed workers.
Featured Document
One of the remarkable documents in this collection is a list of 491 enslaved people who were freed from Charles Heyward’s Amsterdam, Lewisburg, Pleasant Hill, Rose Hill, Myrtle Grove and Ashley Farm plantations. The list, dated July 1865, was filed with the estate appraisal of Charles Heyward on March 3, 1866. Freed people are listed by name, age, occupation and plantation. The original manuscript is among the Heyward family papers at the South Caroliniana Library, and they have shared it here.
Above: Detail from List of 491 Slaves Freed from Heyward Family Plantations, Heyward Family Papers, 1703-1975, South Caroliniana Library at USC