Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Carter Family Journals, 1847-1864. Accession 40665, Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Donor information unavailable.

Biographical Information

Lewis Warrington Carter was born 26 December 1819, the son of Hill and Mary Braxton Randolph Carter. He attended school in 1828-1829 with William Brent, Jr. of Richland, near Aquia. He then studied with Bishop William Meade (1829-1834), attended Bristol College in 1834, and studied with Hugh Nelson in 1836. Warrington later studied medicine in Philadelphia. He is listed in the 1850 census as a physician from Charles City County. He married Agnes Moncure Haxall on 26 June 1867 in Richmond and died 8 August 1889. Hill Carter (1796-1870), grandson of Charles Carter, was the owner of Shirley from 1816 through the Civil War. Shirley survived the war intact because Hill Carter, in 1862, was able to acquire from General George B. McClellan a Federal Safeguard. That safeguard protected the family and property throughout the duration of the war.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of two journals, 1847-1864, contained in one volume and kept by the overseers of Shirley Plantation, owned by Hill Carter (1796-1875), and Ardennes Plantation, owned by Lewis Warrington Carter (1819-1889), Charles City County, Virginia. Includes journal, 1847-1852, kept by William Gill, overseer of Ardennes Plantation noting daily weather conditions and plantation agricultural activity. Also contains a journal, 1857-1864, listing Shirley Plantation slaves' names, type and number of clothes issued and woven, date clothes woven or issued, payment for work and goods, books read and given out to slaves, and meat consumed. There are also slave children's names along with their ages and mother's name listed in this journal.