by Edward Ball
the Ball family … customers of the Work House: Services: Charles R. Simpson to Isaac Ball, 15 Mar 1814, BP-SCL; “Work house fees … $65.25 [18 Nov 1819],” and “Oct 14, 1828 paid W. E. Gordon, work house fees for Town, $8.87,” in Pimlico plantation book, 1810–30, BP-Duke.
Karl Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar: Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach, Travels through North America during the Years 1825 and 1826 (Philadelphia, 1828), II:8–10, quoted in Willie Lee Rose, ed., A Documentary History of Slavery in North America (New York: Oxford, 1976), and Rogers, Charleston in the Age of the Pinckneys, 146–48.
the Missouri Compromise: Chronology of events and quotes from political debate, 1820–35: William W. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, 1816–1836 (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), part II.
“I wish that some … would learn to play on the Hoe boy”: Elias Ball to Isaac Ball, 23 Jul 1823, BP-SCL.
“the Negroes … are much happier … in their present situation”: John Moultrie, Liverpool, to Isaac Ball, South Carolina, 10 Oct 1823, BP-SCL.
Isaac Ball … dictated his last wishes: Will of Isaac Ball, 15 Nov 1825, Charleston Wills.
John Jr. … went into politics: Charleston Mercury, 5 and 15 Oct 1830, 29 Jun 1831, CLS.
Morris’s gunshot wound: Thomas G. Finklea to John Ball, 26 Jul and 16 Aug 1833, BP-SCHS.
“equality [is] but another name for barbarism”: pamphlets quoted in Freehling, Prelude to Civil War, 81–82.
One poem … “Limerick; or Country Life in South-Carolina”: Catharine Gendron Poyas, “The Huguenot Daughters” and Other Poems (Charleston: John Russell, 1849), 66–91.
Occasionally Swinton would sell … workers: Bills of sale, 1 Jan 1834, 2 & 6 Mar 1837, Misc. records, vol. 50, p. 417, and vol. 5T, pp. 131, 142, SCDAH.
“the negro slaves [be] sold … in lots”: “Anna dislikes the sea”: Hugh Swinton Ball to John Ball Jr., 26 Jul 1830, BP-Duke; shipwreck: Elias Ball, Ball family history, compiled ca. 1950, BP-SCHS, and Deas, Recollections of the Ball Family, 140–41; trial: Irving, Day on Cooper River, 164, and Helen Tunnicliff Catterall, Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institute, 1929), II:395.
“I did not mean … a college education was useless”: William James Ball to Eliza Ball, 22 Apr 1840, BP-SCHS.
William and Julia Ball … controlled three plantations: Halidon Hill: memorandum by William James Ball, 1842, Plantation book, 1804–90; 450 people: Plantation book, 1804–90, BP-UNC; Cedar Hill: Conveyance, James Poyas to William James Ball, 1 Jan 1850, BP-SCL.
“I was given to Stepney by my master”: Affidavits of William Gaillard and Patty Moultrie (1903), Civil War pension file of Stepney Moultrie (128th U.S. Colored Troops, Company D), cert. no. 559536, Records of the Veterans Administration, National Archives, Washington.
the “committee on manures”: Account book, Strawberry Agricultural Society, 1847–59, private collection.
two Ball field hands … killed their work-gang leader: Trial and death sentences: Charleston Courier, 7 Jun 1844; family of Pino, Amelia, Sambo: Plantation book, 1804–90, BP-UNC; sale of Amelia: Bond of Daniel Cook for purchase of Amelia, banished from State of South Carolina by Court of Freeholders, 12 Feb 1847, private collection.
a private tutor and violin lessons: Mat. F. Davis to Eliza Ball, 10 Nov 1855, Eliza Ball to William J. Ball, 13 Nov 1855, William James Ball Jr. to Eliza Ball, 16 Feb 1862, BP-SCL.
“I went to see the Campbell Minstrels”: Isaac Ball to Julia Cart Ball, 1 Oct 1853, private collection.
the strong rice economy: Cherry Hill: Agreement for purchase of Cherry Hill plantation, and Karwan’s Tract, William J. Ball and Duncan N. Ingraham, 27 Dec 1856, and James Simons to W. J. Ball, 31 Mar 1857, BP-SCL; bushels: Rice crop, 1858, BP-SCL; deaths: Slave mortality and wartime provisions notebook, 1857–64, BP-SCL.
William brought … gifts for … Limerick field hands: Diary and memo book, 1853–63, BP-SCL.
The Blessing, a 631-acre tract: Smith, Baronies of South Carolina, 172.
his mind was on … his slaves: Diary and memo book, 1853–63, BP-SCL.
15: THE SIEGE
“we looked forward to our Southern Confederacy”: Memoir of Mary Gibbs Ball (1923), 168-page ms., private collection.
3,950,000 … in slavery: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 115th ed.; Smith and Horton, eds., Historical Statistics of Black America. “Population: Slave and Free, 1790–1860,” “Slaveholding and Non-slaveholding Families.”
South Carolina broke off in December: These sources have been useful in narrating events of the Civil War: Mark Boatner, The Civil War Dictionary (New York: David McKay, 1959); Patricia L. Faust, ed., Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War (New York: Harper & Row, 1986); John Johnson, The Defense of Charleston Harbor (Charleston: Walker, Evans & Cogswell, 1890); E. B. Long with Barbara Long, The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac (New York: Doubleday, 1971); Stewart Sifakis, Compendium of the Confederate Armies: South Carolina and Georgia (New York, 1995); Jon L. Wakelyn, Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977); The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, series I, vol. XIV (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1885).
“Slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction”: Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina From the Federal Union; and the Ordinance of Secession (Charleston: Evans & Cogswell, 1860), Special Collections, College of Charleston.
“Georgia has seceded”: Eliza Ball to William James Ball, 21 Jan 1861, BP-SCL.
Elias Nonus Ball: Confederate States Service Records, National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Elias N. Ball to Robert Barnwell Rhett, 22 Feb 1861, Elias N. Ball to W. Porcher Miles, 30 Mar 1861, Elias N. Ball to LeRoy P. Walker, 30 Mar 1861, in Confederate papers relating to citizens or business firms, M346, National Archives.
“[T]he Ladies generally are very warlike”: Eliza Ball to Julia Obear, 7 Mar 1861, private collection.
“Greeting for Victory”: Charleston Courier, 17 Apr 1861.
harvests … declined sharply: Diary and memo book, 1853–63, BP-SCL.
Southern blacks were Christians: On the changing spiritual life of the black population in South Carolina, see Margaret Washington Creel, “A Peculiar People”: Slave Religion and Community-Culture Among the Gullahs (New York: New York University, 1988).
“Ostler John”: Plantation record book, 1804–90, BP-UNC.
“fine orchestra playing” [and] “Virginia don’t deserve it”: Eliza Ball to Julia Obear, 29 May 1861, private collection.
twenty-five men … to dig trenches: “Men who went to work on fortifications, Christ Church parish, Dec 1861,” Diary and memo book, 1853–63, BP-SCL.
“We have given up long ago Tea & Coffee”: Jane Ball Shoolbred to Julia Obear, 7 May 1862, private collection; “This paper”: Jane Ball Shoolbred to Julia Obear, 14 Mar 1864; “the Ball ladies made … shirts”: Confederate papers relating to citizens or business firms, M346, National Archives.
Balls seemed not to worry: Catherine Theus to Julia Obear, 20 Feb 1862, private collection; Eliza Ball to William Ball, 17 Jan and 4 Feb 1862, BP-SCL.
“the men are volunteering”: William Ball Jr. to Eliza Ball, 16 Feb 1862, “this state particularly they would wish to crush”: Eliza Ball to William James Ball, 20 and 28 Feb 1862, BP-SCL.
Shanks Evans … Secessionville: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, series I, vol. XIV, 18–19, 42–47; John Johnson, The Defense of Charleston Harbor, 25.
“the whole seaboard will be taken”: Eliza Ball to Julia Obear, 7 May 1862, private collection; “Negroes … will be very insolent”: Jane Ball Shoolbred to Julia Obear, 7 May 1862, private collection; a house in Columbia: Indenture, Eliza Ball to Edmund Davis, 4 Jun 1862, BP-SCL.
“so pleased with your wife”: Eliza Ball to William James Ball, 19 Jan 1863, BP-SCL.
“I saw Cupid yesterday”: William Ball Jr. to William Ball Sr., 30 Aug and 26 Nov 1863, private collection.
“death in a more preferable place”: Eliza Ball to William Ball, 17 Feb 1863, BP-SCL.
Nat … companion and servant: William Ball Jr. to William Ball Sr., 26 Nov and 28 Dec 1863, private collection.
“brisk engagement”: Eliza Ball to William James Ball, 15 Jul 1863, BP-SCL; “John’s Island, 1863,” entry in diary of D. E. Huger Smith, private collection.
“Don’t … give up entirely”: Eliza Ball to William James Ball, 23 Jul 1863, BP-SCL; “the most despondent man”: Eliza Ball to William James Ball, 3 Aug 1863, BP-SCL; “fragments of Yankees”: Jane Ball Shoolbred to Mary Gibbs Ball, 4 Aug 1863, BP-SCL; “braver or cooler Boys”: Eliza Ball to William James Ball, 7 Aug 1863, BP-SCL.
“I can’t conceive how we escaped”: William Ball Jr. to William Ball Sr., 30 Aug 1863, private collection.
“I fully expect it to be in ruins”: Jane Ball Shoolbred to William James Ball, 24 Aug 1863, BP-SCL.
Isaac B. Gibbs: Johnson Hagood, Memoirs of the War of Secession (Columbia, S.C.: The State Co., 1910); “The Pure Hearted,” eulogy, Charleston Courier, 8 Dec 1864; Memoir of Mary Gibbs Ball.
“darkest day that the Confederacy has yet seen”: William Ball Jr. to William Ball Sr., 25 Dec 1864, private collection; “outrages of the enemy”: William Ball Jr. to William Ball Sr., 18 Jan 1865, private collection.
“Some could not sing, but wept”: Memoir of Mary Gibbs Ball.
The last day of slavery came at Limerick: “Greasy Yankees”: Isaac Ball to William James Ball, 16 Jun 1867, private collection; Lamentations: Mary Ball’s memoir states that Federal troops arrived at Limerick on a Sunday, when her husband was reading from the Book of Lamentations. Charleston fell February 17, 1865. According to a contemporary Episcopal calendar, verses from Lamentations were read on Quinquagesima Sunday, fifty days before Easter. In 1865, Easter fell on April 16, Quinquagesima on February 26. The personal prayer book of one of the women present at Limerick, Jane Ball Shoolbred (The Church Service, New York, 1854), calls for the reading of Lamentations 1.
The crowd came from the cabins: Sylvia, seamstress: Eliza Ball to William James Ball, 21 Jan 1861, BP-SCHS; “Daddy Ben”: Memoir of Mary Gibbs Ball.
Isaac began a diary: “Campaign of 1865,” Diary of Isaac Ball, 7 Feb–12 May 1865, private collection.
“the companies were skeleton companies”: Captain Charles Inglesby, Historical Sketch of the First Regiment of South Carolina Artillery (pamphlet, Charleston: Walker, Evans & Cogswell, 1894).
16: AFTERMATH
black Americans began to use surnames: Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the Civil War (Boston: Little Brown, 1953; New York: Da Capo, 1989), 287.
black families on Ball lands: One of the first written uses of surnames by former slaves appears in sharecrop contracts drawn up after the Civil War. The list of names adopted by former Ball slaves is compiled from contracts written at Ball plantations in the period 1865–68, which are preserved at the National Archives: Charleston, South Carolina, labor contracts, Jun 1865–Mar 1868, entry 3130; Moncks Corner, South Carolina, labor contracts, Jan–May 1866, vol. 237, entry 3286; Moncks Corner Register of contracts, vol. 238, Jan 1867–Apr 1868, entry 3285; Berkeley district labor contracts, Jan 1866–May 1868, entry 3120, all in record group 105, Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen’s Bureau), National Archives, Washington.
William Ball … sold four plantations: Smith, Baronies of South Carolina, 172.
“The Yankees … gave it to the Negroes”: Memoir of Mary Gibbs Ball (1923).
29 [people] put their names on [the] contract at Limerick: Limerick labor contract, 2 Mar 1866, in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, labor contracts, Jan–May 1866, vol. 237, entry 3286, Freedmen’s Bureau, National Archives.
demolished about 1920: Artillery shell: Francis G. Cart to William J. Ball, 1 Jun 1865, private collection; appraisal: International Insurance Co., New York, policy issued to Eliza Ball, for dwelling at N.E. corner of Vernon and East Bay Streets, Charleston, 30 Jul 1866, BP-SCHS; house in decline: Memorandum for my executors in the event of my death, 29 Jun 1877, by James McElvey, Statement of rents collected and disbursed by T. Grange Simons … for Estate of Mrs. Eliza Ball, 24 Apr 1878, a/c sales of house and lot at N.E. corner of East Bay and Vernon Streets … 12 Mar 1879, Statement of rents collected and disbursed by T. Grange Simons … 27 Mar 1879, BP-SCHS.
“I have been effectually cured of all desire for drink”: Alwyn Ball to William J. Ball, 20 Feb 1872, BP-SCHS.
A tax return … appraised the property: Tax return, William J. Ball, 24 Feb 1876, BP-SCHS; sale of land: Berkeley County RMC, A7-407.
“now-a-days can’t compare to those of the good old days”: William J. Ball to Mary Ball, 12 Jan 1891, BP-SCHS.
The last of William’s land: Lawsuit: State of South Carolina, County of Berkeley, Fanny R. Heyward, et al., executrixes of W. B. Smith v. Mathurin G. Ball, executor of William J. Ball, and Mary H. Ball et al., 7 Sep 1893, private collection; sale of Limerick: Berkeley County RMC, A10–346; sale of The Bluff: Berkeley RMC, A52–243.
black population of Charleston rose by two-thirds: Powers, Black Charlestonians, 100.
Scipio … died … on August 19, 1857: Comingtee plantation record book, 1849–90, BP-SCL.
Sarah Roper England: Author’s conversations with Roper-Roberson family.
Pawley … a 793-acre tract: Pawley: Charleston RMC, H11-347, N12, 309–11, X15, 129–131; Roper-Roberson family: Pawley’s labor contract, 6 Mar 1866, Moncks Corner, South Carolina, labor contracts, Jan–May 1866, vol. 237, entry 3286, Freedmen’s Bureau, National Archives.
“[Isaac Ball] used to … write to him for me”: Affidavit of Patty Moultrie (1903), Civil War pension file of Stepney Moultrie (128th U.S. Colored Troops, Company D), cert. no. 559536, Records of the Veterans Administration, National Archives, Washington.
Jacqueline Ball: Author’s conversations with Ball family of Virginia and South Carolina.
Joseph Ball: Separation qualification for Army personnel, Joseph M. Ball (1945), private collection.
Edward Ball was buried: Death certificate of Edward Ball, 2 Nov 1969, Department of Health, City of New York, cert. #56-69-211842.
17: THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY
[Judge] Julius Waties Waring: William D. Smyth, “Segregation in Charleston in the 1950s,” SCHM, vol. 92 (1991), 99–123.
The South Carolina Society began: “Rules of the Incorporated South Carolina Society,” pamphlet (1795), Special Collections, College of Charleston Library; “Rules of the South Carolina Society,” pamphlet (1827), CLS.
Society for the Preservation of Spirituals: Misc. file, “Society for the Preservation of Spirituals,” SCHS.
Plantation Melody Singers: Plantation Melody Singers, notebooks, private collection.
18: A RECKONING
Emily Marie Frayer: Author’s conversations with Lucas-Frayer family, South Carolina.
“Daddy Fortune’s funeral was at midnight”: Memoir of Mary Gibbs Ball (1923), private collection.
four years of elementary education … three years of vocational: Edmund L. Drago, Initiative, Paternalism, & Race Relations: Charleston’s Avery Normal Institute (Athens: University of Georgia, 1990), 124–25, and throughout.
“[Philip Lucas] … wife name Ellen”: “Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company 1865–1874, Charleston, S.C.,” Record Group 105, Microcopy No. 816, roll 21, Freedmen’s Bureau, National Archives.
The Lucas clan came from an “old family” on the Cooper River: Biographies of Tom, Julatta, and their descendants, 1731–1865: Account and Blanket Book, 1720–78, BP-SCHS; Plantation Record Book, 1804–90, BP-UNC; Slave Registers and Blanket Book, 1804–21, BP-SCHS; Birth and Blanket Lists for Comingt
ee, Kensington, Hyde Park and Midway, in John and Keating S. Ball Books, 1735–1817, BP-UNC; Will of Isaac Ball, 15 Nov 1825, Charleston Wills; conversations with Sonya Fordham; Census of the United States, 1870, Charleston County, and 1900, Berkeley County, South Carolina.
Julatta raised … corn or rice: Memorandum, 28 Jan 1735, Account and Blanket Book, 1720–78, BP-SCHS.
Tom … alleged uprising plot in 1748: Tom White: Account and Blanket Book, 1720–78, misc. slave lists, and 1777 list of male slaves and where born, “Tomwhit — Angola — [age] 55”; conspiracy: South Carolina Council Journal, #17 (20 Dec 1748–16 Dec 1749), SCDAH.
notice in the Charleston newspaper: South Carolina Gazette, 22 Feb 1768.
Bessie took flight: “A fair list of the Negroes that is gone from Kensington [1780],” and misc. note 1 Jun 1780, in Account Book, 1780–84, BP-Duke.
Betty … married a man named Joe Bailey: Will of Isaac Ball, 15 Nov 1825, Charleston Wills; Slave Registers and Blanket Book, 1804–21, BP-SCHS.
three forms of evidence: Milton Rubincam, ed., Genealogical Research Methods and Sources (Washington, D.C.: American Society of Genealogists, 1960), 38–44.
Other records [for Moses Ball] … did survive: Census of the United States, 1880, Berkeley County, South Carolina, enumeration district 88, p. 35; Ball family witnesses, F. E. Gibbs, John Shoolbred, and Keating Ball: Petition in matter est. Marcus Dent, 28 Feb 1887, filed 25 June 1888, and Est. of Marcus Dent Administration Bond, 10 Jul 1888, Berkeley County, South Carolina; Marcus Dent at Hyde Park: Plantation book, 1804–90, BP-UNC; Moses Ball in Massachusetts: Directory of Watertown, MA, 1921 (Boston: W.A. Greenough); Watertown residence: Census of the United States, 1920, Massachusetts, vol. 83, enumeration district 510; marriage license: Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, State Department of Public Health, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
