Daybook , 1761-1825 Digital

This volume contains entries for two different business entities: Sampson Neyle, Charleston, S.C. daybook, November 4, 1761-June. 13, 1781; Thomas R. Hazard (R.I.) daybook, December 11, 1822-Sept 27, 1825. The volume endpaper and flyleaves contain drawings of human heads, and inscriptions by Thomas R. Hazard.

The daybook kept by South Carolina merchant and planter Sampson Neyle from November 1761 to 1781 contains records of the Cape Good Hope and Washo rice plantations in Charles Town (later Charleston) and the business interests of Neyle and his partners that intersected with and sustained plantation operations, such as a general store and the firms of Bremar & Neyle and Lloyd & Neyle. Entries also concern cultivation and sales of indigo and cotton, shipping ventures, and land transactions.

The volume contains accounts with other planters, merchants, slave factors, and tradespeople like John Deas, Dr. Alexander Garden, Henry Laurens, Miles Brewton, Thomas Buckle, Daniel Doyley, Jacob Motte, Isaac Motte, Torrans, Poaug & Co., Austin, Laurens & Appleby, Austin Laurens & Co., Nowell Davies & Ancram, David Oliphant, Joseph Allston, Isaac Mazyck, Richard Milford, Ingles, Lloyd & Hall, John Vaux, Woodberry & Lord, and John Beswicke & Co.

Expenses to Neyle’s plantations included buying enslaved people to work as hands, as well as their clothing, shoes, food, and medical attendance; field equipment and supplies; guns and gunpowder; overseer wages; freighting and shipping rice; and town and poor taxes on his land and slaves. Neyle frequently purchased “Negro cloth” from British suppliers like Brice & Champion of Bristol, but also local merchants and factors such as Woodrop & Cathcart, who provided pea jackets, blue Negro cloth, oznabrig, and blue plains. Equipment and materials purchased for both Cape Good Hope and Washo included rice machines, nux vomica (poison), and hooks and lines for the field hands as well as seed, pumps, vats, frames, and oil for indigo works. In 1777, Neyle bought a spinning wheel and cotton gin, and there are records for weaving and making cotton and wool cards.

A number of accounts concern buying or developing tracts of land in South Carolina and Georgia. In December 1763, a profit and loss entry records cash advanced by Bremar & Neyle to pay G. McKintosh for running out 2700 acres of land on the Altamaha; the account adds a note that “The plant was returned too late, when the Govr. & Council had resolved to give no more grants for these Altamaha lands, so the above expence was lost.” An April 1771 account against “Lands in Georgia” to Bremar & Neyle includes payment for 434 acres on the Sapello River Neyle received from McKintosh in exchange for discharging a debt in 1765, as well as a lot Neyle acquired in Savannah.

Cape Good Hope had already been established for at least three years when Neyle expanded his holdings to include Washo; an entry against Washo in February 1764 shows he purchased 550 acres of plantation land on the Santee River from Daniel McGregor. In March 1764, there are accounts related to his purchase of 1735 acres to enlarge Cape Good Hope. In late 1765, entries begin to reference Santee Plantations or Plantations at Santee, including tax payments, reflecting the combined accounts of Cape Good Hope and Washo. By June 1777, Neyle was paying taxes on Cape Good Hope (3000 acres, 72 enslaved people), Washo (1794 acres, 91 enslaved people), land in St. Marks Parish (2700 acres), and Barony lands (4000 acres).

Entries that pertain to buying or selling slaves generally contained the names and prices paid for each person or family, and sometimes details about appearance, age, nationality, or skills. A February 1764 account of 27 people bought at auction for Washo included June, who was a cooper, Titus, a “big boy,” and Will, a “blind fellow.” In June 1773, an account against Santee Plantations that contains payments to Roger Smith, Alexander Inglis, and Inglis, Lloyd & Co. for multiple children and women includes Miles Brewton’s charge for three Gambia men; in July 1773, there is payment for a carpenter named Cooper. In October 1774, there is a charge for training Boatswain as a wheelwright. In May 1777, Neyle bought two “boat Negros” named Baccus and Ben; he then hired them out.

There also are accounts related to “town" slaves, who either worked at his home or were hired out by Neyle, such as Robbin, Cesar, Zenobia, Sharper, and Castalio; some of them were sent to labor on the plantations. An account against Cape Good Hope Plantation in April 1762 contains charges to the work of Cesar building slave quarters. Payments to Lloyd & Neyle reflect specific clothing bought for town and plantation slaves, like pea jackets and duffel coats. An account of plantation expenses in December 1765 include provisions to a free African American named Margaret, and her charges for lodging slaves Nancy and Flora.

A few entries concern the escape of Cudjo and Ceylon and related expenses: a March 1763 account contains charges for advertising two runaways; and in December 1763, Cape Good Hope paid to recapture Cudjo twice. There is also a charge in December 1764 from an overseer for purchasing a leg iron for Cudjo.

Accounts sometimes contain goods delivered to enslaved people on the plantations for personal use, paid for in rough rice they cultivated separately. In February 1764, there are charges to Cape Good Hope for a violin for Cancuse, the cost of which he was to repay Neyle; and for iron potts delivered to unnamed slaves in exchange for rough rice. In January 1775, an account of Santee Plantations includes a line expense for three sows traded to enslaved workers for rough rice.

Entries for medical care include Neyle and his family, in addition to overseers and household and plantation workers. Cape Good Hope paid Dr. Schwartzkopff to attend Sambo, who died at his house in April 1764; an October 1766 entry for Santee Plantation expenses included a “Negro doctor for Flora”; and in December 1766, physician James Dick was paid for medicines for Neyle and Flora, and for attending and curing Nancy of venereal disease. In February 1773, Neyle purchased a family – Mercury, Kate, and their son Shallow – from Bereford’s auction. In December 1774, plantation expenses included a coffin for Mercury.

Neyle traveled to England for short and extended period of time. A memorandum notes he was in London from April-November 1763, accounting for the absence of entries during that time, although entries that follow contain profits and loss on gold and silver he brokered in England and expenses during his travel there. Neyle again went to England from May 1768 to December 1769, during which time David Deas was in charge of his business in South Carolina, and again in 1771-1772.

Shipping accounts include voyages to London and Cowes with cargo of rice, dated in December 1770. In April 1777, an expense account contains a charge of a “small adventure” sent to Port-au-Prince that was captured by the British. Neyle also shipped indigo to Sint Eustatius. Personal expenses in the volume include payment related to gambling and his race horse, Valiant, the education of son Philip, grooming, and board and lodging during his travel. In June 1767, Neyle donated money for the relief of “a cargo or poor Irish Protestants at the barracks.” In December 1767, there is a charge from Auba for doing his washing. There are also accounts for his father Philip Neyle’s estate, administered by his brother Gilbert, in summer 1768.

Accounts after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War sometimes contain reference to Neyle’s contribution of livestock, produce, or labor; an account of Santee Plantations in December 1777 contains charges for hire of Neyle’s enslaved people on the public works in 1776-1777. Transactions were recorded in paper money until the surrender of Charleston to the British during in June 1780, after which they were recorded in sterling.