Contents and Arrangement
Charles Jones Sale Ledger Documenting Laborers at Fairfield Farm, 1873-1891
Collection Overview
Collection Description & Creator Information
- Scope and Contents
Consists of a 170-page manuscript ledger kept by Charles Jones Sale (1845-1898), a white farmer and plantation owner, documenting laborers and sharecroppers who worked on his family's Fairfield Farm in Essex County, Virginia. The ledger records thousands of entries over two decades during the late 19th century. These entries list labor done by over one hundred agricultural workers, several dozen of whom were African American men and women, identified in the ledger by the term "Cold" (i.e., "Colored") after their names. The ledger includes full names for all laborers as well as dollar amount payouts for specific tasks performed by people working as blacksmiths, nurses, cooks, weavers, carpenters, farm workers, and in other occupations. Several entries from the 1880s document rent charges for Thomas Allson and William Beverly, two African American sharecroppers. Some surnames of African American laborers documented in the ledger include Bates, Baty, Beverly, Bush, Campbell, Davis, Epps, Evans, Fortune, Hooper, Johnson, Jones, Mercer, Nelson, Parker, Robb, Rollins, Thornton, Vessels, Vicks, and Williams. Along with the individual labor records, the ledger also contains occasional accounting information in the form of lists of property "given in for taxation," deposits and expenditures from banks, farm accounts documenting operational expenditures, accounts with suppliers, Sale's private and household expenses, and a listing for the estate of Dandridge Sale, who died in August 1880.
- Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by the name of the creator or by the date of acquisition.
Collection History
- Acquisition:
Purchased from McBride Rare Books in 2022 (AM 2022-100).
- Appraisal
No material was separated during processing.
- Processing Information:
Item processed and described by Kelly Bolding in February 2022.
Access & Use
- Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research use.
- Conditions Governing Use
Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
- Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
- Credit this material:
Charles Jones Sale Ledger Documenting Laborers at Fairfield Farm; General Manuscripts Miscellaneous Collection, C0140, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library
- Location:
-
Firestone LibraryOne Washington RoadPrinceton, NJ 08544, USA
- Storage Note:
- Firestone Library (mss)
- Boxes B-001806
NoteBoxes 59 and 63 are stored in special vault facilities.
Find More
- Existence and Location of Copies
Parts of this collection are available on microfilm, cataloged separately as RCPXM-7497696.
- Separated Materials
Citizens of Coculco & Tempatetetzintla v. Antonio de Padilla, 1624, previoulsy in Box 10, has been removed and transferred to the Princeton Collection of Mesoamerican Manuscripts (C0940).
- Subject Terms:
- African Americans -- Virginia -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Agricultural workers -- Virginia -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Plantation owners -- Virginia -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Sharecroppers -- Virginia -- History -- 19th century -- Sources - Genre Terms:
- Ledgers (account books) -- 19th century
- Places:
- Essex County (Va.) -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
