Manuscript Location

South Carolina Historical Society, Reading Room, College of Charleston, Addlestone Library

Place of Origin

United States ➔ South Carolina ➔ Stateburg

Date of Composition

1825-1839, with additions ca. 1860s

Description

This journal contains household accounts; lists of clothing, linens, furnishings, and the contents of a writing desk; a home library inventory; recipes; and directions for making perfume and medicines. The volume also contains anonymous later recipes, one of which is dated 1864.

Nathalie deLage Sumter (1782-1841) was a daughter of a French noble family that owned several estates in France and several houses in French cities. The family lived in Versailles during the reign of Louis XVI and worked for the monarchy. In 1794, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, Nathalie was taken to New York for safety. She stayed in the home of Aaron Burr until 1801, where she and Burr's daughter were tutored by Nathalie's French governess. Late in 1801, Nathalie embarked on a voyage to France to see her parents. While in port in New York, she met and fell in love with Thomas Sumter Jr. (1768-1840), who was on his way to Paris to join the American diplomatic delegation to France. The couple married in Paris in 1802. After returning to America, they lived at Home House, the Sumter family plantation in Stateburg, South Carolina. They had at least four children, including Thomas Delage Sumter (1809-1874), a U. S. Congressman from 1839-1843. A son of Revolutionary War general Thomas Sumter (1734-1832), Thomas Sumter Jr. was Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina from 1804 to 1806 and served as the first American ambassador to Brazil from 1809 to 1819, during which time he and his family lived in Rio di Janeiro. The mansion at Home House was destroyed by fire in the 1930s, but the Sumter family graveyard, where both Nathalie and Thomas are buried, survives and is still owned by the Sumter family.