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Raymond, John W.

[Florida Sharecropping Plantation Account Book.]

Alachua County, Florida, 1 Jan. 1868–25 March 1872. 4to (292 x 225 mm), black calf spine with marbled paper over boards. 148 pp. of manuscript. 12 blank pp., miscellaneous papers laid in, lincluding 1 p. labor contract.

A rare manuscript account book documenting a Florida sharecropping plantation and reflecting the broader Reconstruction-era sharecropping system and its endemic debt.

This ledger is organized by sharecropper and contract laborer, with goods purchased by the workers and credits to them, when applicable, appearing below their names. Throughout the document, expenses tend to outweigh remunerations, indicating that these laborers were consistently in debt and were thus beholden to the plantation owners and their estate—as was common in the sharecropping/contract labor system. In the majority of entries, “Dr” (deliveries) are noted in the left-hand column, while “Cr” (credit) appears in the right-hand column. To be sure, the system essentially made slaves of these laborers. While nominally free blacks made up only one third of all sharecroppers—the rest were poor whites—a number of the workers here have seemingly characteristic African-American names, such as Caesar White, Columbus Moore, and Prince McQueen. In a few places female names appear, such as one Margaret who is credited with 12 days of work.

A laid-in signed labor contract between John W. Raymond and one Robbin Simmons, dated 25 March 1872, provides identification of the owner of the present plantation. Raymond agrees to employ Simmons for 9 months and to pay him $12 per month for the “faithful performance of his duties as a plantation hand.” The contract stipulates Raymond is not required to pay more than one half of Simmons’ wage until he has completed his term of 9 months of work. The penultimate entry in the ledger proper records Simmons’s purchases and notes that he indeed began work on 25 March 1872.

The goods purchased by workers include tobacco, soap, flour, fresh pork, bacon, Wellington boots, books, bush corn, syrup, rifles, and suspenders. Often the vendor’s name will be provided, such as a recurring John Coy. Various forms of labor are noted, including blacksmithing; bagging twine; planting potatoes; plowing; “splitting 1280 rails”; hauling clay; and boiling sugar. Expenses for such things as mule rental, land, and in one case a subscription to The Republic, are also noted. One entry records that “100 bush corn & goods” have been delivered from Boston. Various tipped-in papers consist mainly of manucript calculations. One laid-in sketch depicts a line of trees, evidently a planting scheme.

“High interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants often kept tenant farm families severely indebted, requiring the debt to be carried over until the next year or the next. Laws favoring landowners made it difficult or even illegal for sharecroppers to sell their crops to others besides their landlord, or prevented sharecroppers from moving if they were indebted to their landlord.”—pbs.org

An unusual and important Florida daybook revealing the cyclical debt the sharecropping system inflicted upon its hapless laborers.

REFERENCES: Sharecropping at www.history.com; Slavery By Another Name at pbs.org

CONDITION: Covers worn; contends good.

Item #4701

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