Descriptions of the holiday season in Beaufort from can be found in some of the published recollections and manuscript diaries we hold in trust for the community. We recommend:
Letters from Port Royal, 1862-1868 edited by Elizabeth Ware Pearson
This is a collection of letters written by missionaries and teachers connected to the New-England Educational Commission for Freedmen. Learn about some Gullah cultural practices at Christmas time. Check this book out from our branch libraries Local History Sections.
Tombee : Portrait of a Cotton Planter edited by Theodore Rosengarten.
I have written about irascible Thomas B. Chaplin's observations of Christmas seasons. Check this book out from our branch libraries Local History Sections. (He didn't like Christmas very much. His slaves got the day off, plus he was expected to come up with presents for his family and his people. What a Scrooge!)
James R. Stuart’s unpublished autobiography includes a segment called “Christmas on the Plantation” (a.k.a. as "Cousin Jimmie's Christmas on the Plantation" letter that is in the display cabinet this month).
We have copies in the vertical files. (A far more favorable view of Christmas than Chaplin shares with us, perhaps because Stuart's family was financially solvent as the Civil War loomed).
Fredrick Christensen diaries have a Christmas entry each year. Visit us to read the entries.
Susan Hazel Rice diaries contain the observations of an old woman about Christmas during the final years of the 19th century into the opening decade of the 20th century. (Christmas celebrations were certainly rather spartan affairs in her lifetime when compared to the excesses between 1990 - 2007.) The Rice diaries are available in transcription in the BDC Research Room.
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