Boats, Bikinis, and Brittle Paper

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I'm hanging out with a friend right now, but a big, long update later this evening.

Beachbikinibabe pictures?

[wilson]

Y'all are seriously not going to give up on these bikini pics, are you?
Truth be told, I arrived in Charleston without a digital camera, figuring I'd invest in one in order to take images in the archives. Turns out the SCHS doesn't allow any photos, so it'll all be notating and transcribing. This makes it a little difficult to justify that investment at the moment.
I'm blowing back through Atlanta next weekend (17-19 July) for Greg Maddux's jersey retirement, and I'll rustle up a camera one way or another while I'm there. After that, I promise some pics. I am not, however, promising to sit on the beach ogling women through a camera lens.

[wilson]

OK, so after that little blip of a computerless couple of days, I'm up and running again.
Today was my second full day in the archive at the SCHS (the South Carolina Historical Society, which I'll henceforth refer to via the preceding acronym), and I already feel like I'm at least beginning to move beyond my previously referenced feelings of helplessness and being overwhelmed. I spent today reading through a couple more letterbooks (volumes of individuals' correspondence with business partners, other associates, family members, etc.). Both of the ones with which I spent big chunks of time today will be really helpful, bringing my total to at least three such big hunks of primary material for my project. They show the far-flung contacts a merchant kept. In the space of about half a dozen pages of one merchant's letterbook today, I read dispatches to Philadelphia, Barbados, New York City, and London. Another guy kept tabs on dealings throughout the Indian subcontinent (even exchanging letters with a governor there) and had active ventures as far east as China, as well as extensive contacts in London and several New World locations.
I also read through a couple of merchants' ledgers. These are just what they sound like...collections of pages for various clients, usually with debits to the client's account on one page and credits on the opposing one (sometimes a single page will be divided into two columns). These tell more of a story than you might think. For one thing, they demonstrate the wide range of goods and services a merchant might traffic in. For instance, Henry Ravenel, whose ledger I looked at today, might advance cash to a client (or transfer a sum of cash from one client to another, making the appropriate adjustments to their respective accounts), but he also dealt in everything from textiles to finery (brass buttons, gold thread, silver, etc.) to meat to skins to livestock. Payment could be given in cash or in kind. One guy I read about today paid off a fifteen-pound debt by serving as tutor to Ravenel's children for five months. Another guy settled ten pounds' worth of debt with a canoe. You get the picture. These are also fun because, more often than the letterbooks, they're not microfilmed versions or facsimile copies; they're the real deal. For me, there's no duplicating the visceral thrill of leafing through a person's book that was made, written in, maintained ~250 years ago. That is, in large part, the essence of why I do what I do.
Best of all, only one of the collections I allude to above has had anything published on it that I can find, and that was a short, rather general article in 1995. This is like gold for me.

On a more ethereal, "connecting-with-the-place" note, I went for a long walk through the city last night, along King and Meeting Streets, through the slave market, along the waterfront park, along the Battery, and through the section that houses the city's oldest and most spectacular homes (many of which bear plaques with the names of people whose very papers I am reading/will read). I ended up covering about 4 miles. It was a just-sultry-enough, but not too hot evening, with a lovely sea breeze blowing. I intend to make this a more or less nightly occurrence (probably not 4 miles every night, but I will continually revisit my favorite spots). It should be good for my feelings about my project and this place, and for my waistline. I missed out this evening because I was tending to my computing issues (and rain sort of threatened/halfheartedly fell for much of the late afternoon/early evening), and I already found that I kind of missed it.
It's nice to already be acquiring a sense of excitement about going back to the archive in the morning. One last note...the staff at the SCHS are great. A couple of people in particular have been really helpful and are quickly acquiring a sense of what my project is all about. They've already begun to point me in some good directions, and will get glowing acknowledgments in my book someday.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

After that, I promise some pics. I am not, however, promising to sit on the beach ogling women through a camera lens.

Some pirate you are

[colchar]

Y'all are seriously not going to give up on these bikini pics, are you?
Truth be told, I arrived in Charleston without a digital camera, figuring I'd invest in one in order to take images in the archives. Turns out the SCHS doesn't allow any photos, so it'll all be notating and transcribing.

Oh that sucks. Shitty buzz.

[bjornolf]

After that, I promise some pics. I am not, however, promising to sit on the beach ogling women through a camera lens.

Some pirate you are

Hey, you're the maroon that picked the title, not us. ;) We're a B.O.G., whaddya expect from us?

[DukeUsul]

So how do you track/store information, since you can't use a camera? How much detail from the ledgers and other documents do you need to transcribe?

[wilson]

Rather a lot. The current trip is primarily for taking inventory and getting a game plan together for my second, much longer research foray, which begins on roughly June 1 of next year. The idea right now is to acquire by the end of the summer at least a general idea of what the true project is going to be, as well as an inkling of what more intensive reading/examination needs to happen when I come back.

[wilson]

One of the letterbooks I've been heavily immersed in is that of a London merchant named Edward Fenwicke. In the process of reading his business correspondence, I really started to wonder just exactly what his story was...where he came from, how he got into "the biz," that sort of thing. Then today, I happened upon a letter he wrote to his nephew in 1734 (the original...still awesome to read 275 year-old parchment!). The nephew, it seems, had written his uncle wondering about the heritage of their family. Edward replied with several pages of the Fenwickes' saga, culminating with his generation's story, especially that of he and his brother Roger, "who has acquired a large estate in South Carolina." The letter told the story of how their father died young and they were forced to get out and make their own way in the world, along with tales of great grandfathers being beheaded during the English Revolution, crumbling old castles, and dealings in southeast Asia. It's a veritable treasure trove for my work, as it is about the clearest kind of step-by-step personal history as I'm ever likely to find. Aside from that, though, it kind of struck a deep personal chord. It really reminded me of the sort of loving, colorful response you or I might have gotten upon asking a similar question while perched on our grandfather's knee. It was a heck of a find and a cool experience.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

It was a heck of a find and a cool experience.

Congrats on your find, but still no beachbikinibabe pictures? Sheesh.

[EarlJam]

I was working on a subtitle to the thread (as we academics are wont to do), but I ran out of space in the window. It wasn't going to be an exciting subtitle anyway, just "wilson's Summer 2009 Research Thread".

Anyway, I wrote in "Does wilson get a research thread?" that my project concerns intercolonial trade in and out of Charleston between roughly the 1730s and 1750s. I'm particularly interested in evolving human geographies; that is, the changing ways in which people interacted with the physical landscape and the cultural footprint of human inhabitance (be it European/creole, African/African-American, or Native American). Networks of exchange--commercial, informational, cultural, etc. are important to the project.

This is obviously the very short synopsis of my topic. Any questions, feel free to ask. As Lavabe intimated in his proxy post, and as colchar I'm sure would agree, it really helps me to answer any questions, however many you may have, about the project, in the interest of clarifying it ever more. So fire away.

I think you should wear the pirate outfit during the entire project, getting in character and staying there as you research this topic. By the way, how awesome (as mentioned), you are following your passion. Let me pay you an additional compliment by writing truthfully that I finally found and purchased the perfect tennis raquet. The brand? Wilson. I am undefeated with it. So not only are you a great friend and a loyal Atlanta mafia member; your name is also stamped on the many victories I've been racking up in tennis. In short, I love you. Not in the passion/gay way, rather. the "Wilson rocks, is a great friend with knowledge beyond his years, kick ass way."

Rock on man. Wilson = Winner.

-EarlJam

[wilson]

OK, this is hilarious. I'm sitting here with an account sheet showing balances between a Bristol merchant and a Charleston client, dated 1741. It includes entries for upholstery, the sales of some sundries in Bristol, and lottery tickets. Yes, lottery tickets. 15 pounds' worth. Folks, 15 pounds was a lot of money in 1741. Methinks old Thomas Eveleigh was a degenerate of sorts.
But the funniest bit on the sheet was a little shred of marginalia jotted all the way at the bottom. The following is a verbatim transcription:

Is poor Fido still alive, how does he do
Tell all the house and field people [this is a really sanitized way of saying slaves] howdy.

I really hope "poor Fido" pulled through whatever misfortune he had met with, and that he enjoyed a long and happy life.

[TillyGalore]

OK, this is hilarious. I'm sitting here with an account sheet showing balances between a Bristol merchant and a Charleston client, dated 1741. It includes entries for upholstery, the sales of some sundries in Bristol, and lottery tickets. Yes, lottery tickets. 15 pounds' worth. Folks, 15 pounds was a lot of money in 1741. Methinks old Thomas Eveleigh was a degenerate of sorts.
But the funniest bit on the sheet was a little shred of marginalia jotted all the way at the bottom. The following is a verbatim transcription:

Is poor Fido still alive, how does he do
Tell all the house and field people [this is a really sanitized way of saying slaves] howdy.

I really hope "poor Fido" pulled through whatever misfortune he had met with, and that he enjoyed a long and happy life.

Wilson, is "field people" your wording or the author's wording?

[wilson]

OK, this is hilarious. I'm sitting here with an account sheet showing balances between a Bristol merchant and a Charleston client, dated 1741. It includes entries for upholstery, the sales of some sundries in Bristol, and lottery tickets. Yes, lottery tickets. 15 pounds' worth. Folks, 15 pounds was a lot of money in 1741. Methinks old Thomas Eveleigh was a degenerate of sorts.
But the funniest bit on the sheet was a little shred of marginalia jotted all the way at the bottom. The following is a verbatim transcription:

Is poor Fido still alive, how does he do
Tell all the house and field people [this is a really sanitized way of saying slaves] howdy.

I really hope "poor Fido" pulled through whatever misfortune he had met with, and that he enjoyed a long and happy life.

Wilson, is "field people" your wording or the author's wording?

Everything except the part in brackets is a direct quote. So that was his wording. Actually a pretty common construction for that era, although more often it just got rendered as "Negroes".

[Johnboy]

Everything except the part in brackets is a direct quote. So that was his wording. Actually a pretty common construction for that era, although more often it just got rendered as "Negroes".

So, "house and field people" are slaves, right?

At that time were they all African or African-American slaves or were there still at that time indentured servants and/or enslaved Native Americans? I read a book entitled Slaves in the Family and I remember being surprised that English colonists/whites/Europeans (whatever they're called) were still using indentured servants and/or trying to enslave Native Americans at a seemingly very late date, though 1741 may be later - aw, heck , I'll check the book.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I'm really impressed by the phrase "howdy". I never had it in my thoughts that it would have been used way back when. How much different was the language back then as opposed to now? I'm thinking after reading your excerpts that it not as far apart as I had thought.

[wilson]

I'm really impressed by the phrase "howdy". I never had it in my thoughts that it would have been used way back when. How much different was the language back then as opposed to now? I'm thinking after reading your excerpts that it not as far apart as I had thought.

I was very surprised to encounter the word "howdy" too. I wouldn't say the language was hugely different, but constructions definitely were. You really do encounter words like "ye" a lot. Spellings are also, um, interesting. It's totally normal to encounter the same word (or name) spelled about 5 different ways in the same document.
Syntax can also be a challenge. Some things are basically two pages of a run-on sentence...no paragraph divisions, no periods, very few commas or other punctuation.

[wilson]

So, "house and field people" are slaves, right?

At that time were they all African or African-American slaves or were there still at that time indentured servants and/or enslaved Native Americans? I read a book entitled Slaves in the Family and I remember being surprised that English colonists/whites/Europeans (whatever they're called) were still using indentured servants and/or trying to enslave Native Americans at a seemingly very late date, though 1741 may be later - aw, heck , I'll check the book.

Yes, these are slaves we're talking about.
In the Carolinian context, indentured servants and Native American slaves were rather common in the early period (1670-1700ish), but they had pretty well fallen out of favor by the mid-18th century. I did come across a document regarding one man's indenture to another as a servant around 1740 today, though.

[devildeac]

After that, I promise some pics. I am not, however, promising to sit on the beach ogling women through a camera lens.

Some pirate you are

You are correct. If he was a TRUE pirate, he would be pillaging and plundering. There will be NO direct mention of the typical intro to that phrase...

[wilson]

After that, I promise some pics. I am not, however, promising to sit on the beach ogling women through a camera lens.

Some pirate you are

You are correct. If he was a TRUE pirate, he would be pillaging and plundering. There will be NO direct mention of the typical intro to that phrase...

I have been biting my tongue for some time, and this is not going to come across kindly, but the thing about pictures of scantily-clad women stopped being funny quite a while ago.
I included the bit about bikinis solely in pursuit of an alliterative title to the thread. While I am enjoying the sight of bikini-clad women in my spare time, it has nothing to do with my work (I really didn't anticipate having to explain this).
This thread was meant as a means of sharing something about which I care very deeply, and as a way of demonstrating (like Lavabe) why I do what I do. If you're only interested in women in their swimsuits, then there are plenty of avenues here to discuss that sort of thing. Hell, I'm interested in that too, and will jump in on the discussion, but not here. If you're not interested in my work, that's fine, but please offer your comments in some other thread.