Rebecca Foy diaries


Descriptive Summary
Title: Rebecca Foy diaries
Creator: Foy, Rebecca
Inclusive Dates: 1778-1864, 1933, 1936
Bulk Dates: 1778-1869
Language(s): English
Extent: 1 folder(s)
Collection Number: ms2787
Repository: Hargrett Library

Collection Description

Scope and Content

The collection consists of two diaries kept by Rebecca Foy consisting of handwritten accounts of marriages, births, deaths, illnesses, and remedies for illnesses and nosebleeds. The earliest birth recorded is "Anne Dasher, born Sept. 21, 1778." The final entry ("My ducks began to lay"), dated 1864. The collection also includes Book I – Vol. I, dated 1936, titled Fay Family of Effingham County, Georgia. Assorted family papers include: Biography of Edward Edwin Foy (1842-1907), written by Eloise Eugenia Foy Ward; one letter dated Jan. 31, 1933, addressed to Mrs. Ella Cordona, regarding a letter she had written attempting to locate George Foy, who had enslaved Cordona; and miscellaneous handwritten accounts of births and deaths of Foy family descendants.

The diaries mention the purchase of the following enslaved people: Reuben, 1853, age 9; Jake, 1853; Lawrence, 1855; Elbert, 1855, age 12; Monroe and Sam, 1856; Stephen, 1856, age 10; Sam, 1857; Lewis, 1857, age 12. There is also mention of a few incidents of 'runaways' between 1858 and 1861.