Alexis Ferry, 1842-1883

Islandora advanced search

Alexis Ferry was a sugar planter and slave owner from St. James Parish, La. He bought Bourbon Plantation in the 1840s for sugar production. He married Josephine Roman, the daughter of Valcour Aime and his wife Josephine Roman in 1857. With a dowry from his father-in-law, Ferry bought a second plantation in 1858 for his new wife across the river from his plantation and Oak Alley Plantation, owned by Aime, and called it Home Place. In 1866, Ferry was forced to sell his plantations when a storm destroyed one of his sugar mills and economic turmoil affected the plantation economy due to the abolition of slavery. The state sold the plantation to Joseph Waguespack in 1877, and he changed the name to St. Joseph plantation. From 1842 to 1883, Ferry wrote in his journals about his family, health, and business. Several entries contain his opinions on the issues of slavery, race, religion, and state sovereignty. He wrote about the transition of the antebellum slave and plantation economy to a free society, and commented on wage-earning freedmen and labor strikes. He also wrote about his interests in astronomy as well as several political and philosophical ideas about society. Ferry sketched ships, horses, and machines he invented for harvest on many of the pages of his journals. The journals also contain balance sheets for his plantation and weather records for anticipating the outcome his harvests.

Admin Login

 

Louisiana Digital Library

Contact the Louisiana Digital Library

Permissions/rights/reproduction and information requests:

The Louisiana Digital Library (LDL) is composed of collections from many different institutions. Permission to publish and acquire images or requests for more information about materials that you find in the LDL should be directed to the institution that contributed the item to the LDL. To find the contact who can help you, find the field called "Contact Information" next to the image of interest to you. The Louisiana Digital Library is a service provider only and has no authority to grant permission to publish or supply high-resolution images.

Technical assistant/site support

The Louisiana Digital Library platform has been developed by LSU Libraries on behalf of the Louisiana Digital Consortium. It runs on the Islandora open-source digital repository software.

LSU Libraries' Technology Initiatives: lsudiglib@lsu.edu.

Thanks for your interest in the Louisiana Digital Library.

About the Louisiana Digital Library (LDL)

The Louisiana Digital Library (LDL) is the front door to Louisiana's digital cultural heritage. Members include public libraries, academic libraries, museums, and archives from arcross the state.

Currently, there are 25 participating institutions in the LDL. Each institution contributes the digital items and the descriptive text for their collections.

  • Calcasieu Parish Public Library
  • Delgado Community College
  • East Baton Rouge Parish Library
  • Law Library of Louisiana
  • Louisiana State Archives
  • Louisiana State Museum
  • Louisiana State University
  • Louisiana State University at Alexandria
  • Louisiana State University at Shreveport
  • Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans
  • Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport
  • Louisiana Tech University
  • Loyola University New Orleans
  • McNeese State University
  • Nicholls State University
  • Northwestern State University
  • Southern University
  • State Library Of Louisiana
  • The Historic New Orleans Collection
  • Tulane University
  • University of Louisiana at Lafayette
  • University of Louisiana at Monroe
  • University of New Orleans
  • Vermilionville Living History Museum & Folklife Park
  • Webster Parish Library

The LDL is built with Islandora, an open source digital library system based on FedoraDrupal, and Solr.

Information about the Louisiana Digital Consortium can be found here: http://louisianadigitalconsortium.org