By the end of the 18th century, Edgefield County veterans of the American Revolution were becoming the older generation. Changes surrounded them. The cotton gin gave a profitable crop to the South and strengthened the once-fading institution of slavery. Prices of slaves and land rose. Large holdings were divided into farms. There was much traffic across the Savannah River with Augusta, Georgia. Deed books concern land conveyances but also contain powers of attorney, depositions, bills of sale and other documents. Occasionally, deeds explain family relationships. Chains of titles may show why land was passed from one owner to another. Some deeds mention other places of residence. This book abstracts four deed books. Almost 2,000 handwritten pages are here reduced to 157 pages that retain all dates and names of persons, watercourses and places. Recorded between 1800 and 1803, many deeds were written earlier, some in the 1760s; titles may be carried back to the 1750s.
Carol Wells
(1997), 2007, 5½x8½, paper, index, 190 pp.
ISBN: 9780788407048
101-W0704
