Would any of those books happen to list slave names? As my Haywards are
black
>and would have been slaves.

I have heard that Hayward slave ownes kept a book at every plantation
with
>slave names and clothing rations to it.........and that there was at
least 17
>Plantations owned by Haywards but tracking that down has been a thorn
in my
>hip side..........

    Penni, I believe most of the family were located in Beaufort, and
Colleton Districts. Thomas Hayward, signer of the Declaration of
Independence is buried on his plantation near Ridgeland. If you can get
access to a 1825 Mills Atlas of South Carolina you will see where many
of the plantations were.
    The good news is plantations usually kept very good records of their
slaves. It was good business.
    The bad news is they were located where they were. That was the
first part of the state which welcomed Sherman. I know of only one
building in now Jasper County that is still standing, the church, which
was used as a stable. Every house, every outhouse and every corncrib was
usually burned. Owners rarely considered their books one of their
possessions that had to be removed.
    You might contact The SC Historical Society in Charleston for any
plantation papers that may have survived. Next place is of course the SC
Archives.
    More good news, Nancy Peeples has just transcribed the "Losses by the
Enemy" on the Low Country List. During the war when plantation owners
had slaves run away or building burned they would petition the State for
reimbursement. It would list the slaves and sometimes by slave family. I
will forward to you one of her posts. I believe she also cross-posted
the "Losses" to the African-American genealogy lists and several people
reported slave matches.

Lots of Luck!
Julius Huguenin

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