urn:taro:utexas.cah.00527 A Guide to the William A. Buckner Papers The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
Austin, Texas
November 2006 November 2006Encoded in XMetal 3 by Evan Hocker according to instructions in TARO 2 EAD 2002 Editing Instructions. Finding aid written inEnglish. Descriptive Summary Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin Buckner, William Aylett William A. Buckner Papers 1775-1869 11 in. Materials are in English. Papers of William Aylett Buckner, attorney, cotton planter, and slaveholding entrepreneur in Natchez, Mississippi. Collection documents the business and legal interests of one of the major slaveholding enterprises in the American South. Scope and Contents

Papers of William Aylett Buckner, attorney, cotton planter, and slaveholding entrepreneur in Natchez, Mississippi. The plantation records from the Buckner Papers cover all aspects of plantation business and life and are especially strong in documenting the institution of slavery, as well as the cotton trade made possible by slave labor. Papers document Buckner and other prominent slaveholding families in the Natchez area, such as the families of Frederick Stanton, John Hunsicker, Alexander K. Farrar, David Hunt, Levin R. Marshall, and others.

Of particular note, the collection documents the business partnership between Buckner and Hunsicker, with slave records, cotton sales, receipts for steamboat shipping, and papers relating to the Choctaw Plantation. Also includes correspondence with Buckner’s law clients, banking and financial records (including the Panic of 1837), plantation maps, receipts, and records of Buckner’s “Airlie” home. The wide array of slave-related documents includes slave inventories, medical records, runaway slave documents, and bills of sale. Family correspondence included in the papers makes reference to slave life, as well.

Among the many remarkable documents in the Buckner Papers are a group of records documenting the business practice of mortgaging slaves—with the mortgages being held by NewYork banks—and a group records documenting the region between New Orleans and Memphis, with an emphasis on the antebellum era.

Biographical Note

William Aylett Buckner was an attorney, cotton planter, and cotton commission merchant who owned the “Airlie” house in Natchez, Mississippi. He and his business partner John Hunsicker owned the Choctaw Plantation in Tensas Parish, Louisiana, in the nineteenth century.

Preferred Citation

William A. Buckner Papers, 1775-1869, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

 Related Material

See also the Natchez Trace Small Manuscript Collections

 William A. Buckner Papers 3J451 Family letter to Mrs. Jane Ferguson from sister, July 28, 1826 3J451 Receipt for wages of a sailor aboard the slave ship "Royal Charlotte," 1775 3J451 Slave mortgage document, 1841 3J451 Letter from Hunsicker to Butler discussing crops, slaves, and health, 1857 3J451 Bill of sale for the slave Ann and her child by James Stockman to Buckner and Hunsicker, 1840 3J451 Bill of sale for slaves Diner, Steven, Dick, and Elizer by William K. Colling to Thomas McCorgo, 1839 3J451 Bill of sale for slave Amy by John Hunsicker to Buckner and Hunsicker, 1850 3J451 Bill of sale for slaves Burrell, Emeline, Caroline, and Kit (aka Christopher) sold to Buckner and Hunsicker, 1840 3J451 Lot No. 1, slave sale 3J451 Slave bill of sale, 1840 3J451 Slave bill of sale, six slaves, 1840 3J451 Slave bill of sale, 1853 3J451 Slave documents and plantation map 3J451 Correspondence re. Unhealthy slave girl Maria, 1822 3J451 Documents re. Runaway slaves 3J451 Miscellaneous bills, notes, etc. 3J451 Bills for the medical treatment of slaves 3J451 Ballard, Franklin, and Company 3J451 3J451 Account records of Stanton and Buckner, 1852-1853 3J451 Account records of Stanton, Buckner, and Newman, 1854-1855 3J451 Account records of Buckner, Stanton, and Newman, 1855-1856 3J451 3J451 Receipt issued to John Hunsicker for capture of slave, 1845 3J451 Account records of Stanton, Buckner, and Newman, 1859-1861 3J451 Bills and receipts for work done on Choctaw Plantation, 1842-1860 3J451 Business partners expenses, 1840s-1850s 3J451 Checks drawn on W.A. Britton and Company for expenses at Choctaw Plantation, 1849-1855 3J451 Steamboat waybills, 1841-1853 3J451 Tax receipts for taxes paid on land and slaves, as well as levee tax, 1848-1856 3J451 Plantation financial records, 1840s-1850s 3J451 Cotton sales, 1842-1860 3J451 Correspondence to Buckner 3J451 Bills, merchants’ receipts 3J452 Receipts 3J452 Receipt to Buckner for barrels of corn and cash credit, 1848 3J452 Mortgage and notes for Choctaw Plantation, 1847 3J452 Early Mississippi will 3J452 Contract between Buckner and Hunsicker regarding Choctaw Plantation, 1858 3J452 Bill to Buckner from David Hunt, 1836-1837 3J452 Agricultural Bank of Mississippi, 1837-1838 3J452 Bank documents from the Panic of 1837 era 3J452 Business correspondence to Buckner, and to Buckner and Stewart 3J452 New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad 3J452 Business correspondence re. Cotton sales in New Orleans 3J452 Rifle Point Plantation 3J452 Legal papers 3J452 Financial records 3J452 New Orleans Gas Light and Banking Company, 1835-1836 3J452 Mississippi and Alabama Railroad Company, 1837-1838 3J452 Union Bank of Louisiana, 1837-1838 3J452 Planters Bank of Mississippi 3J452 Bank of the United States in New Orleans 3J452 Commercial Bank of Natchez 3J452 Bank of the State of Mississippi 3J452 Correspondence re. Cuba, 1842 3J452 Financial records 3J452 Jane Ferguson subgroup: 3J452 Receipt issued to slave boy George, 1841 3J452 Financial records 3J452 Various materials re. Choctaw Plantation, etc. 3J452 Bank of the United States at Natchez 3J452 Financial and court records 3J452 Financial records 3J452 Commercial Bank of Rodney, Mississippi, 1837 3J452 Letter: Stedman and Company to Buckner, written aboard the steamboat "Aurora" regarding saw mill, plantation ginhouse, yellow fever, 1858 3J452 George L. Locker subgroup 3J452 Slave bill of sale 3J452 Financial records 3J452 List of slaves at “Locust-land Plantation” 3J452 Letter to D.J. Seaton re. Threat of lawsuit unless debt is paid or slaves given up, 1836 3J452 U.S. Circuit Court, Southern District, 1841 3J452 Invoices for materials sold by druggist W.H. Fox to Buckner and Hunsicker, 1840-1860 3J452 Invoices for materials sold by druggist P.H. McGraw to Buckner, 1850-1860 3T4 Photograph: Ambrotype of unidentified Buckner youth, Airlie home, Natchez, Mississippi