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Restricted: Access to some originals is restricted due to their fragile condition; DVDs are the first-use copy. Boxes 1-5 and 11-15 have been scanned to DVDs. This includes personal correspondence, transcripts, genealogy, photographs, and postcards. Research access to the autograph book is restricted to the photocopy and transcript.
Terms Governing Use:
Biographical/Historical:
General David Blackshear and his wife, Fannie Hamilton, settled in Laurens County, Georgia, in 1790. When David died, he divided his property between his seven sons. One son, Edward Jefferson Blackshear, established the Frog Level Plantation labor farm on his portion, along with his wife Mary Jane Pittman, daughter of Colonel James J. and Martha (Whitehead) Pittman of Marianna, Florida.
Colonel James J. Pittman was a labor farmer in Jackson County, Florida. He and Martha had several children, including Mary Jane. Another daughter, Anne Eliza Pittman, married Thomas M. White, a Jackson County businessman. A son, John D. Pittman, served as a sergeant in company E of the 8th Florida Regiment and was killed in the Battle of Manassas in Virginia on August 30, 1862.
Edward J. Blackshear was a businessman, county judge, and state senator in Georgia. He and Mary Jane had four children, including Mary Blackshear and Edward J. Blackshear, Jr., who was known as Ned. Mary Jane died six weeks after Ned's birth. As a child, Ned was sent to Jackson County, Florida, to live with his uncle and aunt, Thomas M. and Anne Eliza (Pittman) White.
Thomas Masters White was one of the wealthiest men in Jackson County and one of the largest landowners in Florida. He was an enslaver and labor farmer, as well as a businessman and politician. He started a business in Webbville and moved to Marianna around 1830. He started a mercantile business in Marianna with George K. Walker, called White & Walker, and continued the business under his name after their partnership dissolved. Thomas married Martha Jane Russ in 1834 and after her death, married Anne Eliza Pittman with whom he had one daughter, Annie White. Annie married John Estes and lived in Marianna.
While growing up with the Whites in Marianna, Ned (E.J. Blackshear, Jr.) met Belle Milton, a descendant of Florida Governor John Milton. They married in 1883 and later moved to Dublin, Georgia, where Ned started an insurance business. Two of their children were Marguerite (Rita) Blackshear and Will M. Blackshear. Rita Blackshear married James Abner Dickens, a businessman from Halifax, Virginia. Rita and James Dickens had two children, James Dickens, Jr. and Bell Milton Dickens. After the death of James Dickens, Sr., Rita and her children moved back to Dublin, Georgia to live with Ned and Belle Blackshear. When Ned was 83, they moved back to Marianna, Florida, to live in the house that they inherited from Annie White Estes. Ned Blackshear lived into his mid-eighties and died in 1937.
While living in Marianna during the 1950s, Rita Dickens wrote "Marse Ned: The Story of an Old Southern Family," about the Blackshear, Pittman, White, and Dickens families. Rita's daughter, Bell Milton Dickens, married William Stephen Drew in 1935. Their son, William Milton Drew, married Joyce Ann Thompson in 1957.
Summary:
This collection consists of correspondence, personal papers, business papers, photographs, and other materials of the Blackshear, Pittman, White, Dickens, and Drew families of Jackson County, Florida and Laurens County, Georgia. The collection is organized into 6 series as described below.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1809-1970s. This series consists of personal and legal correspondence and other related papers of the Blackshear, Pittman, White, Dickens, Drew and associated families. The personal letters discuss a wide range of topics including family relations, genealogy, weather, health, food, travel, education and school, opinions about the Civil War, and military service.
Series 2: Business Correspondence, 1822-1970s. This series includes letters, receipts, promissory notes, bills of exchange and of lading, invoices, ledgers, and account statements. The letters include details of the cotton and slave trade along the Apalachicola, Chipola, and Chattahoochee Rivers, as well as banking transactions in middle and west Florida. Much of the correspondence documents the business interests of Thomas M. White of Jackson County. Additional documents pertain to unpaid debts, land ownership, financial problems, and running for political office.
Series 3: Frog Level Plantation Correspondence, 1850-1876. This series consists of letters between various family members of the Blackshear family at the Frog Level labor farm in Laurens County, Georgia. Correspondents most featured are Edward J. Blackshear, Mary Jane (Pittman) Blackshear, Martha Pittman (Mary Jane's mother), and Mary Blackshear (Edward and Mary Jane's daughter). Some letters in this series make very brief mention of enslaved persons - such as Thany, a nursemaid, mentioned in a letter from C. L. Blackshear to Martha Pittman in February 1865 - however, these constitute a very small portion of the topics discussed in these letters.
Series 4: Genealogical Materials, 1700s-1950s. This series consists of genealogical charts and records relating to the Blackshear, Bryan, Bugg, Dickens, Drew, Milton, Pittman, Smith, and White families.
Series 5: Photographs, 1850s-1950s. This series consists of photographs from two albums, which depict the Blackshear, Dickens, Estes, Pittman, White, and related families. Many of the photographs are unidentified.
Series 6: Miscellaneous Materials, 1820s-1970s. This series includes newspapers, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, poems, sewing patterns, speeches, reports, land records, plat maps, church newsletters, a family bible, the book "Marse Ned: the Story of an Old Southern Family" and related materials, and John D. Pittman's autograph book from the University of Virginia. A photocopy of the student entries from the autograph book as well as a typewritten transcript of the entries are included in this series.
Box 25 of Series 6 also includes a number of records relating to the enslavement of Black persons by Thomas Williams and Thomas White, described as follows:
1. A notice posted to T. M. White regarding the enrollment of free and enslaved Black men in the Confederate army, for which he is required to surrender four (one for every 35 persons enslaved by an individual) at Marianna on February 20, 1865.
2. A Statement of Bond between James H. and Thomas Gray, dated January, 1844, which references the sale of a Black girl named Leanor. The cover of this record is marked "Thomas Williams, Marianna, W. Florida."
3. A receipt of sale for one Black girl, Lean, to Thomas Williams from [Isaac] Hughs & [A.] Patterson, Tallahassee, dated 21 February 1840.
4. A receipt of sale for one Black boy, William, to Thomas Williams from E. D. Hawk and Jesse McCall, Gadsden County, dated 22 May 1841. William's age was listed in the original receipt, but the record has been torn.
5. A record dividing a number of enslaved Black persons between several parties, Marianna, dated 4 January 1859. The first group includes Little Bob, Marinda and two children, Austin and Laura, and Ann, assigned to be enslaved by Thomas M. White. The second group contains Ned, Viney and daughter Fanny, and Sylvia, assigned to be enslaved by the children of Edward J. Blackshear. The final group includes Allen, Big Bob, Marina, and Molly, assigned to be enslaved by John D. Pittman. The commissioners listed on this record are Thomas J. Myrick, Rich [?] Song, and Isaac [?].
6. A partial record dividing a number of enslaved Black persons between parties, undated. Enslaved persons identified are Zack and his wife, Catherine, and her children, Jim, Ella, Eliza, and William; David; Mary; Charles; and Betsy and her child Louisianna; these individuals were set apart to be enslaved by Thomas M. White before the remaining Black persons were divided amongst the unnamed parties.
7. A notice of an upcoming sale of twelve enslaved Black persons in Marianna, to be held "the first Monday in March next," by Thomas M. White as a trustee for Thomas Williams. The Black persons are unnamed, but described as "two fellows, one woman, three small boys, and six children."
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Subject Access Fields:
Blackshear family. Drew family. Pittman family. White family.
Banks and banking History Florida. Civil War (U.S.) Cotton trade Florida Slavery Florida
Apalachicola (Fla.) Jackson County (Fla.) Marianna (Fla.)
for detailed listing.