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NPS Form 10 - 900 - a OMB No . 1029 - 0018
<br /> ( 8 - 86 )
<br /> United States Department of the Interior
<br /> National Park Service 4 ..
<br /> NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
<br /> CONTINUATION SHEET
<br /> Section 8 Page 17
<br /> Woodville Historic District
<br /> Bertie County , North Carolina
<br /> The farming operations of Lewis Thompson, far removed from the gracious oak groves of Woodville, are
<br /> summarized in agricultural censuses and graphically personalized by a diary kept in the 1850s by his overseer,
<br /> Moore Rawls . In 1850 , Thompson owned 121 slaves on four farms . His 850 - acre farm, probably the "river
<br /> 000 ; the other thrre farms, containing 550 , 225 , and 35 acres
<br /> plantation" which Rawls managed , is valued at $ 10 , .:
<br /> respectively, are each valued at $ 5 , 000 . Thompson grew large crops of corn : 6 , 000 bushels on the 850 -acre
<br /> farm; 3 , 000 bushels on 550 acres ; 870 bushels on 225 acres, and 750 bushels on 35 acres . Lewis also had $ 500
<br /> invested in a water-powered mill, and employed one , worker there who ground 4 , 000 bushels of the corn in 1850 .
<br /> His plantations also produced much cotton; 400 bales (bales weighed 400 pounds) from the 850 - acre farm; 34
<br /> bales from the 500 - scre farm; and 3 bales from the 225 - acre farm . No cotton is recorded for the 35 -acre farm
<br /> which produced food crops, including 200 bushels of peas/beans, 50 bushels of Irish potatoes, and 300 bushels of
<br /> sweet potatoes . The 850- acre farm also grew large food crops, and produced animal by-products such as wool
<br /> from a flock of 182 sheep , and 300 pounds of butter from the 32 cows . It also produced 100 pounds of flax for
<br /> linen . $
<br /> By the time the 1860 agricultural census was taken, Lewis had. given the smallest farm, now 66 acres, to his son,
<br /> Thomas W . His other holdings were valued at $40, 000 . His big farm was by then composed of 1 , 000 improved
<br /> acres and 1 , 000 woodland acres . He produced 5 , 300 bushels of corn there and 150 bales of cotton . His other
<br /> farms consisted of one with 1 , 000 improved acres ( 150 bales of cotton, and 5 , 300 bushels of corn) and one with
<br /> 100 improved acres with no cotton but still with large amounts of food crops .
<br /> Moore Rawls ' s diary puts a human face on the operation of Bertie County plantations , Rawls chronicled daily
<br /> events of the river plantation, where there was always work to be done . He mentioned many of the plantation
<br /> slaves by name and recorded their daily tasks, such as planting and picking cotton and flax, processing it, and
<br /> then spinning wool and linen . A typical entry, January 13 , 1853 , records " Big Snow . Anthony and Noah and
<br /> Luke making horse collars and the rest cutting and burning brush on Johnson [field] . Gin at work today. " A year
<br /> later on that same date in 1854 , Rawls recorded that they " kild 59 hogs . . . Anthony and Noah and women work
<br /> on hog guts . The river rising fast today . " The height of the Roanoke River was a constant source of concern .
<br /> 18541 " I lost 5 hogs and one sheep by the freshet . " In other passages he recorded " hands
<br /> For instance, in March,
<br /> building dams, dikes, abutments, causeways, bridges and digging and clearing out drainage ditches . " His great-
<br /> great granddaughter, Mary Margaret Parker, commented in her annotation to the diary that "the same Roanoke
<br /> River that drowned stock and crops was also a friend . Many supplies came by boat to the landing and baled
<br /> cotton was sent by boat on its way to market . " There are many mentions of making canoes and boats .
<br /> Numerous working days were lost and much suffering was caused by the ever-present malarial . fever. In August,
<br /> a Bertie County Agricultural Census , 1850 .
<br /> 9Diary of Moore Rawls , 1851 - 1858 , collection of Mrs . Joseph W . Parker, Windsor , N . C ; School Essay based on diary , copy in
<br /> SHPO file .
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