People Enslaved at Fairfield and Auckland Plantations (1773-ca. 1792)

This dataset is documents the practice of multi-generational enslavement across multiple properties by elite Lowcountry enslavers in South Carolina. The three inventories used for this dataset are a part of the Fairfield Plantation Book (1773-1797), which was used by Jacob Motte (1729-1780) to manage his plantation Fairfield until his death. Motte purchased Fairfield in 1762 from Thomas Lynch, his brother-in-law through his marriage to Rebecca Brewton Motte (1737-1815). Motte’s son-in-law, Thomas Pinckney (1750-1828) helped him manage the plantation. After the death of Jacob Motte in 1780, Pinckney inherited Fairfield and those enslaved there, and his mother-in-law continued to assist in its management. At this time, the Pinckney and Motte families collaboratively operated Fairfield and Pinckney’s plantation Auckland and recorded information about both plantations in the Fairfield Plantation Book. After the death of his first wife, Elizabeth Motte Pinckney (1762-1794), Thomas Pinckney married her sister Frances in 1797 and maintained ownership of Fairfield. Inventories recorded in 1789-ca. 1792 and 1790-ca. 1792 best represent those enslaved by Pinckney at the turn of the century and include robust genealogical data for about 138 people, some of whom were enslaved by Motte. An older inventory of Fairfield recorded in 1773 documents eighty-three people Motte enslaved at Fairfield, some of whom Pinckney enslaved at Auckland according to later inventories. Through the marriage of these families and continued inheritance, those enslaved at either plantation often became trafficked between the two, affecting their daily lives through factors such as family separation and time away from their own personal cultivation plots.