Account Book Belonging to John Wesley Morgan of Georgia, Including Numerous Entries Related to African Americans
Lafayette, Georgia: 1876-1890. Ledger binding of quarter brown calf with green marbled boards, 15 x 6”, containing 135 pages of ink and pencil manuscript. A primarily agricultural account book kept by John Wesley Morgan of Lafayette, Walker County, Georgia, including numerous entries relating to African American laborers and sharecroppers. By cross-referencing the names in the account book with census records, we identified approximately 70 pages relating to African Americans, including Abe Coulter, Jeff Kelly, Henry Richardson, Allen Garner, Alonzo Kelly, George Warthen, Duke Kelly, Dock Young, John Jackson, and Sam Lawrence. Abe Coulter and Jeff Kelly appear to have been instrumental in the operation of the Morgan farm, and there are many entries documenting their labor, and their purchases of provisions from the Morgan family. Present on two of the pages are manuscript sharecroppers’ agreements between Morgan, Coulter, and Kelly, dated 1880:
“said Coulton and Kelly are to cultivate 8 acre of corn and the said Morgan are to furnish stock tools and feed said Coulton and Kelly are to pay one half of all is made and gathered…Coulton and Kelly are to cultivate 8 1/2 acre of cotton…Coulton and Kelly are to help reset the fence around the ridge field...peaches and apples and chestnuts are reserved they are all mine.”
Morgan and his sharecroppers primarily grew cotton, and the account book includes many entries for labor such as picking cotton, pasturing hogs, harvesting, and hauling. Morgan paid these individuals in cash, cotton, or in trade. There are also entries for purchases of provisions and supplies from Morgan by his laborers and sharecroppers: bacon, shoes, whiskey, flour, lard, guano, cabbage seed, honey, and more. Other entries, meanwhile, relate to supplies purchased by Morgan, the sale of cotton, a “tax on brandy,” and settling the estate of Richard Morgan. A few pages at the end, meanwhile, include accounts related to property taxes, and a Morgan family genealogy. Binding loose, spine damaged and chipped, some pages missing, chipped, or damaged, foxing, soiling, and staining to pages, slight mildewing to front pastedown, smudging to text on some pages, which are often written in a messy hand with cross-outs over them, however still legible overall. Item #13740
Price: $7,500.00