SANKOFA'S SLAVERY DATA COLLECTION

Liberty Hall Plantation

Location: Lowndes Co., MS
Constructed: 1835

History: William Ethelbert Ervin owned Liberty Hall Plantation, near Columbus, in Lowndes County, Mississippi, near Columbus. He was born to William and Eliza Dick Ervin in Sumter District, South Carolina in 1809. The family moved to Lowndes County, Mississippi, about 1832. His father died there in 1839. William E. Ervin built Liberty Hall in 1835 on the east side of the Tombigbee River. After his home was built he returned to Sumter, South Carolina, and married Sarah McGee Kennedy.

Associated Surnames: Ervin

Associated Free White Names

• William Ethelbert Ervin: owner

Associated Black Slave Names

1860: Slaves of William E. Ervin
From Lowndes Co. MS Largest Slaveholders From 1860 Census Slave Schedules, Transcribed by Tom Blake
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ajac/mslowndes.htm

• ERVIN, Wm. E., 41 slaves, page 295B
  

Agriculture

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Description of Associated Architecture

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Research Leads

• Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations, Series J: William Ethelbert Ervin Diaries, 1839-1856, Lowndes County, Mississippi. http://www.lexis-nexis.com/cispubs/guides/southern_hist/plantations/plantj6.htm This collection consists of two plantation diaries kept by Ervin between 1839 and 1856. Ervin included information on buying and selling slaves, hiring slaves owned by others, providing slaves with blankets, hats, and other clothing, and paying slaves for their "Christmas work." He made lists of slave birth (and some death) dates. In 1847, he wrote out the rules for slave conduct and punishments in case the rules were broken. There were rules for how to handle quarrels, duties of husbands and wives, absence from the plantation, and the obligation of slaves to be in their quarters by 9 p.m.

Other People Researching This Plantation

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RESOURCES

• Guide Introduction: Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations Series J, Part 6 (Mississippi and Arkansas) http://www.lexis-nexis.com/cispubs/guides/southern_hist/plantations/plantj6.htm