LowCountry Africana : South Caroliniana Library at USC

The South Caroliniana Library at USC

Researchers from around the world visit the Caroliniana Library to study the books, newspapers, manuscripts, pamphlets, serials, maps, audio recordings, and visual images preserved therein. Four major research divisions of the library include: Books (Published Materials), Manuscripts, and University Archives. In addition to these, the library holds a rich collection of Visual Materials and Oral Histories. The Library welcomes researchers at its main building located on the Horseshoe.

Featured Collection: Heyward Family Papers, 1703-1975

List of 491 Enslaved People Freed from Heyward Family Plantations
Heyward Family Papers, 1703-1975
South Caroliniana Library at USC

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Background

Edward Barnwell Heyward, born in Beaufort, S.C., on 4 May 1826, was the son of Charles Heyward (1802-1866) and Emma Barnwell Heyward (1806-1835). Heyward spent much of his youth at Rose Hill plantation where he was born and in his family’s home in Charleston. His graduation from South Carolina College in 1845 was followed by an extended trip to Europe. In 1850 Heyward married Lucy Green Izard, of Columbia. Only one of their four children, Walter Izard (b. 1851), survived infancy. Before his wife’s death in 1858, Heyward purchased Goodwill plantation on the Wateree River in lower Richland District, South Carolina. [View a Map of the Wateree River on Mapquest]

Heyward Family Papers, 1703-1975

The bulk of this collection of one hundred sixty-five manuscripts and one volume covers the period from 1861 until 1870. Civil War letters include family letters of Catherine "Tat" Maria Clinch (1828-1870) who became E.B. Heyward's second wife in 1863.

Barnwell Heyward continued planting at Goodwill for the first two years of the Civil War. The labor force at Goodwill increased significantly when his father’s slaves were relocated to Goodwill from plantations on the Combahee River in Colleton District, South Carolina. [View a map of the Combahee River on MapQuest]

Heyward’s only military experience consisted of service in a homeguard unit in lower Richland District. But in January 1864 he traveled to Richmond to seek a military appointment.

Heyward received a commission as a lieutenant in the Engineer branch and was assigned to Chisolmville in Beaufort District. He was stationed near his father's rice plantations and made frequent visits to inspect the properties and to confer with overseer S.H. Boineau.

After the defeat of the Confederacy, Barnwell Heyward returned to Goodwill plantation and resumed planting. His father died the following year. The enslaved people that had lived at Goodwill during the war returned to the Heyward plantations in Colleton District. In 1866 Barnwell Heyward moved his family to Charleston and made plans to begin planting rice on Amsterdam and Lewisburg, the two plantations that he inherited from his father. These plantations contained 8,000 acres of rice fields and 1,500 acres of adjoining lands.

Reconstruction-era letters discuss agriculture, adjustment to free labor, and unrest among freed workers.