From Camden to Boston: The Journey of Mary Chesnut's Diary Through Time

Camden, SC

Camden, SC, about 30 miles northeast of the capitol in Columbia, was home to many large plantations during the 19th Century.  The Mulberry Plantation, on the Sumpter Highway near present-day Interstate 20, was established by James Chesnut and developed with the labor of about 1,000 enslaved people.  Comprising up to 12,000 acres of land at its zenith, the Plantation produced indigo, cotton, rice, sugar cane, tobacco, corn, cattle, and barley.  After 1800, cotton became its primary crop.

A grand Federal style brick home was constructed at Mulberry in 1820 for James Chesnut, Sr., the nephew of and successor to James Chesnut.  His son, James Chesnut, Jr was born in 1815, the last of 14 siblings.  As the only surviving son, he succeeded his Father in running the Plantation.  In 1840, James Chesnut, Jr. married 17 year old Mary Boykin after graduating from Princeton (then College of NJ) in 1835, and this is where our story really picks up!

Mary, the well-educated daughter of a SC Governor and Senator, kept a diary of her life on Mulberry Plantation.  Because her husband had gone into politics, and had also been elected as a Senator, their lives were connected to many of the leaders who seceded from the Union prior to the Civil War.  James Jr. was an aide to General P.G.T. Beauregard, who ordered the first shot fired on Fort Sumpter.  He became an aide to Jefferson Davis and was promoted to Brigadier General in the Confederate Army.

Mary kept a diary from 1861-65, describing the lives of many of the people in and around the Plantation during the Civil War.  It would not be published until 1905, fully 19 years after Mary’s death, but “A Diary From Dixie” would go on to be recognized as a seminal record of life in the South during the 1860’s.  Ken Burns would cite Mary’s authoritative narrative frequently in his 1982 documentary film, “The Civil War”.  C. Vann Woodward’s annotated version of the diary won a Pulitzer Prize in history in 1982.

Milton, MA

After the Civil War, a 1905 copy of “A Diary From Dixie” ended up in Boston in the small library of the son of a slave couple who migrated to Massachusetts after they were manumitted from Mary and James Chesnut’s Mulberry Plantation.  Like many enslaved people, the slave couple adopted their owner’s surname (with its unusual spelling).  No doubt, the Chesnuts acquired the book because they were connected to its many characters.

David Chesnut, Jr. took over for his Father after his death in 1898 as the horse handler at the Eustis Estate  in Milton, MA.  David Chesnut, Sr had been enslaved with his wife, Elizabeth at the Mulberry Plantation.  David Jr.’s brother, Samuel worked alongside David Jr. as a groom.  They oversaw the transition from horse carriages to automobiles, and David Jr. became the first chauffeur at the Eustis Estate.  Presumably, David Jr. drove the Eustis family automobile on Washington Street (old Route 1) regularly.

Another book in David Jr.’s library, Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery” (1901) indicates that David had connections to AME Zion Church at 600 Columbus Ave in Boston.  Washington’s appearance in Boston at AME Zion in July, 1903 led to a disturbance that was dubbed “The Boston Riot”.  The church membership included civil rights luminaries like Fredrick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman.

The Church building on Columbus Avenue was acquired in 1903 from Temple Adath Israel after its membership moved further from central Boston.  It is home to one of the oldest pipe organs in Boston. The Hook and Hastings built instrument is till in use today.

This incredible connection between 19th Century slavery in South Carolina and free blacks in Boston would not have come to my attention without Recovering New England’s Voices – an initiative by Historic New England.  I am deeply grateful to have read their beautiful narrative.

Timeline:

1540 Cofitachequi natives were encountered by Hernando De Soto in along the Wateree River near present-day Camden.

1733-34 Camden was surveyed as the first inland township in South Carolina.

1760s Mulberry Plantation was established by James Chesnut on land once occupied by Cofitachequi people

1820 The Main House was constructed at Mulberry Plantation for the Chesnut family

1836 AME Zion Church was organized in Boston

1840 James Chesnut, Jr. married Mary Boykin

1861-65 Mary Boykin Chesnut keeps her diary, which would be edited into “A Diary From Dixie”

1886 Mary Boykin Chesnut died in Camden, SC

1888 Temple Adath Israel was constructed at 600 Columbus Ave. in Boston

1898 David Chesnut, Sr. passed away in Milton, MA

1903 AME Zion purchased Adath Israel Synagogue and hosted Booker T. Washington. (“Boston Riot”)

1905 A Diary From Dixie was published posthumously

1980 Mulberry Plantation was added to the National Register of Historic Places

1982 Ken Burns’ documentary “Civil War” used “Diary From Dixie” as a primary source.  An annotated edition of the book won a Pulitzer Prize in History.

2000 Mulberry Plantation was declared a National Historic Landmark.

2014. The Eustice Estate was sold to Historic New England.