Overview

Location

Tippah Co., MS
Later Benton Co., MS due to county line change

Date Constructed/ Founded

not determined

Associated Surnames

Leak

Historical notes

Leak's plantation was in Tippah County (now Benton County) near the town of Salem, which was an important trading center until the Civil War. Leak apparently bought the southern part of his holdings in 1836 and added significantly to his lands around 1851. In 1837, he was assessed for 32 slaves, whom he had probably brought with him from North Carolina. In 1850, there appear to have been ten or eleven whites living on the plantation (chiefly family members) and 110 blacks, most of whom must have been slaves. In that same year, he declared for tax purposes the following: 1,360 acres of land; factory stock in North Carolina; a 1/3 share of a warehouse in Salem, Mississippi; houses, wagons, and farming tools; 100 yards of carpeting; 500 bushels of oats; 500 bushels of peas; 1,000 bushels of potatoes; 400 pounds of butter; 250 bales of cotton; 19 horses; 18 mules; 13 cows; 8 oxen; 23 cattle; 26 sheep; 150 hogs (manuscript volume 2, p. 195). In 1860, he owned 90 slaves, the largest number owned by any one man in Tippah County.

Associated Slave Workplaces

none

Associated Free Persons

• Francis Terry Leak (b.1802-d.1863) - owner

Associated Enslaved Persons

• none recorded yet

Research Leads and Plantation Records

Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations, Series J: Francis Terry Leak Papers, 1839-1865, Tippah (now Benton) County, Mississippi
http://www.lexis-nexis.com/cispubs/guides/southern_hist/plantations/plantj6.htm
The second folder consists of manuscript volume 1: 1841-1865; not transcribed. This volume comprises work records, 10 October 1841 through 18 November 1865, of plantation hands, showing daily tallies of cotton and of other crops picked. Several hands contributed to this book; entries made after Leak's death in 1864 might have been written by an overseer. The third folder consists of manuscript volume 2: 1839-1852; pp. 1-94 transcribed in typed transcription volume 1, pp. 95-286 transcribed in typed transcription volume 2. Pages 1-94 (front to back of volume) chiefly contain short entries relating to business affairs, including the buying and selling of slaves, payment to day laborers, records of cotton shipped and sold, and the management of various estates for which Leak seems to have been executor.

Miscellaneous Information

• none

References

• Guide Introduction: Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations Series J, Part 6 (Mississippi and Arkansas) http://www.lexis-nexis.com/cispubs/guides/southern_hist/plantations/plantj6.htm

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