(SLAVERY ABOLITION) Petition of a major Georgia slaveowner

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(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Petition of a major Georgia slaveowner for exemption from the Confederate draft. Manuscript Document Signed by the petitioner as "L.A. Jordan" and by various officials. 8 pages on 5 leaves, 12 1/2 x 8 inches, with docketing on final blank; folds, minor wear. Baldwin County, GA, 12 February 1864

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Leonidas A. Jordan (1828-1899) was the owner of Westover Plantation in Milledgeville, GA and 8 other plantations in Morgan, Lee, and Daugherty Counties, and said to be the owner of approximately 745 slaves. In this petition, he argues that he should be exempt from service in the Confederate army because his workforce of "seven hundred or eight hundred slaves" was employed on "between six and eight thousand acres . . . devoted almost exclusively to the production of articles of subsistence for man and beast." His agricultural production depended upon "regular and continuous visits to his plantations . . . and giving his immediate and personal attention to all details where most needed, and by exacting strict accountability from all overseers and employees, to regulate which . . . requires from him incessant care and undivided attention." He describes his massive contributions of cotton and corn to the Confederate cause, and adds that "he has furnished his proportion of Negroes to work on the fortifications of the state, where he has lost from exposure and inattention several valuable slaves." His operation depends on having "one common head" to assure "firm but humane discipline for the slaves and strict accountability for the overseers." His aged mother resides at the home plantation with "50 slaves and no child but himself . . . for her protection." His overseers are all too disabled or elderly for military duty." He also testifies that an old wrist injury "would greatly impair his efficiency for service." You might think that the owner of 745 enslaved people would be more eager than most Southern white men to help preserve the slave system.