Baton Rouge, Louisiana Family Diary (MS-01108)

The Baton Rouge, Louisiana Family Diary (1848-1860) is a single item that contains personal accounts, diary entries, as well as handwritten and newspaper recipes, in different hands, by approximately three individuals. The first diary section begins in 1848 and mostly contains personal religious reflections and meditations on church sermons and activities. The second set of diary entries cover the years 1858 through 1860 and concerns farming, crops, and general accounts. The farm was located in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area and its primary crops were cotton, sugar cane, and corn. In the diary entries there are mentions of farm "hands" but no specific reference to slaves. The third section of diary entries contain pages of handwritten recipes and some clipped from a local Baton Rouge newspaper. All the diarists are unidentified, but it was likely kept within a single family. There is no provenance information for this collection.