Objects: The Billfold
How far we've come, how little we've changed.
I am a Berry, but my Grandmother on my father’s side was a Holyfield, sometimes spelled Holifield in old documents and records. Both names are English, and trace their immigration to America to South Carolina in the 1700’s. In the case of the Berry line, it started with two brothers who likely landed at Charleston. The Holyfields also started in South Carolina, and both family ancestors soon migrated to Mississippi.
In the Berry lineage, I know only as far back as my great-grandfather, Jim (Crook) Berry. His only son, John was my Grandfather, who in turn had three sons, one of whom was my father, Louis Berry, born in 1916. John was married to Ella, and she was a Holyfield.
Ella was born in 1881 in Simpson County, Mississippi, but lived most of her life in Prentiss in Jefferson Davis County. She died in 1971. I was 21 at the time. I only knew her through my family trips back “home” every other summer. What I remember of her, stretching back to my earliest memories, were her thick glasses, clattering false teeth, and wavy silver hair.
One of 8 children, Emma, William, Hugh, Fannie, Ida, Ella, Mary, and Mattie, all born between 1871 and 1888, Ella was the youngest. Her brother Hugh had a grocery store in New Hebron, about 5 miles from Prentiss, where she sold her special butter, but that is another story to be told about Saturday trips to Hugh’s store, sweet potatoes, milk cows, butter, and the churn my father was responsible for operating from an early age.
It was a tradition to pass names down the family line. My Grandfather John Paul named one son John Paul Jr. or “JP”. Ella’s mother was Mary, and so was one of her sisters. Her father was Needham, so her son, my father, was Louis Needham Berry. I am Robert Louis. Robert was my maternal Grandfather. It is an old-timey tradition that I admire. Old-timey names like “Ida” aren’t popular anymore, but “Fannie” seems to be coming back around.
Speaking of old-timey names, Needham, born in 1845, had siblings named Espy, Elizabeth, William and Lavasta, and Amanda. Needham was third in line. His father was Lewis, my father’s namesake.
Lewis (sometimes spelled Louis) Holyfield was born in 1801. I visited his gravesite in 2011 during the last trip “home” with my parents. Here is a picture of his gravestone before it was restored, and one I took of it in 2011.
The name on his gravestone is spelled “Louis.” He rests in the Holyfield Family Cemetery in Simpson County near Mendenhall, 10 miles from Prentiss. His son William’s headstone says he’s the son of “Lewis and Rebecca.” The correct spelling was apparently a matter of opinion.
In 1801, the year Lewis was born, Mississippi was still part of the Mississippi Territory created by Congress in 1798.
When Lewis was twenty, Mississippi had been admitted to the Union as the 20th state, splitting the Mississippi Territory into Mississippi and Alabama. During that year, the first state government was established, with the capital in Natchez on the Mississippi River. In 1822, the capital was moved to Jackson, where it remains.
This was a period of strong European immigration, drawn by the opportunities for agriculture and land ownership, especially in the fertile lands along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. During this time, the United States was actively removing Native American tribes from their ancestral lands as the new settlers claimed the land from the East throughout the continent. The institution of slavery was expanding along with plantation agriculture. The primary export crop was cotton.
Lewis married Rebecca Beasley, 15 years his junior, and they had their first child, Espy, in 1838. Rebecca was 22, and Lewis was 37. Lewis, like most men at the time, was a farmer. He and most families at the time depended on family members to work the farm. Lewis had six children, two boys, one of whom was Needham, born in 1845.
By 1845, Mississippi had been a state for 28 years. It had been a period of strong economic growth based on agriculture. Besides the export of cotton, including to European markets, most farmers were subsistence farmers, meaning they grew or raised almost all of what they ate.
In my Grandfather’s case, he grew cotton but also planted corn for feed and bread, raised beef, pigs, and chickens, had an enormous “truck” garden for vegetables, milked cows, and supplemented his income by selling butter. They had a smokehouse for curing hams and sausages. Imagine the effort and knowledge needed for such a self-contained operation. Tragically, it is a lost art we will likely lament in the future more than we do now.
The state economy and politics were dominated by the cotton industry, and as economic interests in agriculture continued to expand, the Native Americans occupying prime farmland, the Choctaw Nation, were systematically removed. The Choctaw are remembered by the Trail of Tears they marched over in exile to what was to become Oklahoma.
While the Indians were moved out, black slaves were moved in, and the antebellum (Latin for “pre-war”) plantations prospered. Not unlike modern times, the 1840s society and politics were sharply delineated between what we would now call “corporate interests” and the rest of society. The largest plantation owners drove the political system that surrounded them, and the rest of the general population, consisting mostly of family farms and tradesmen, just followed along.
There were no large plantations in Prentiss. The closest one was 30 miles northeast in Columbia, the rest were 90 miles away, two in Natchez, the once Capital, and one in Port Gibson. By horse and buggy, traversing 90 miles in favorable conditions might take 3-5 days.
The dominant plantations were large-scale operations, covering thousands of acres and employing large numbers of enslaved workers. The National Register of Historic Places lists only 40 plantations in Mississippi. Perhaps there were once two or three times as many.
The 1860 census listed a total slave population of 436,631 or 55% of the total. If there were 120 plantations with thousands of slave laborers each, that would work out to approximately 3,600 slaves for each plantation. Each plantation had one patriarch who owned all the slaves. We can deduce that the majority of the enslaved population was controlled by a very small percentage of the population. But those men were the most powerful in the state, as monopolists usually are.
The Southern Democrats were supportive of and supported by this dominant sector of the agricultural economy fueled by the export trade. The bulk of cotton grown in the state, 75-80% by tonnage, was produced by plantations. The political contests of the time revolved around policy differences over what either benefited or obstructed the interests of this elite economic class.
Southern Democratic Party politicians lobbied for the expansion of slavery as the western territories were expanding. Northern Republicans opposed the spread of slavery and advocated for its containment and eventual abolition.
In 1845, 15 states permitted slavery, while 14 states outlawed it. By 1861, 11 states permitting slavery had seceded from the United States and formed the Confederacy: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Four additional states permitted slavery but remained in the union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri.
Oddly, slavery was not illegal at the Federal level. No laws were passed by Congress before the war that outlawed the practice. Each state made its determination on the slavery question. Slavery was never part of the nullification movement, which demanded supremacy of state’s rights over Federal laws, because there were no laws to nullify. Slavery, while highly divisive and emotional, was an indirect issue for all but the plantation owners, while tariffs affected everyone.
In total, 15 states permitted slavery but only 11 states joined the Confederacy. There were 19 states (more states had been admitted between 1845 and 1861) that outlawed slavery: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa (admitted as a free state in 1846), Kansas (admitted as a free state in 1861), Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, (admitted as a free state in 1858), New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, (admitted as a free state in 1859) Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
California was admitted to the Union in 1850, 11 years before the war, as a free state. The Compromise of 1850, which prohibited slavery in the new states admitted in the West, facilitated California's bid for statehood. California’s Constitution, adopted in 1849, specifically prohibited slavery.
Eleven states formed the core of the Confederate States of America: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Only a small portion of the population were plantation owners, but the economic power of the plantations was aligned with the Southern Democratic political leaders. The policy debates of the times were dominated by the competing economic interests of the Northern and Southern states. The South was primarily agricultural, while the North was dominated by manufacturing, especially textiles, which was dependent on cheap cotton production to compete with the more established European manufacturers.
The majority of the white population in Mississippi were family farmers, who for the most part, used family members to work their farms. As far as I know, and I’ve traced it back to 1801, to my great, great grandfather, no one in my family owned slaves.
That should not count as credit for or against my family name, as it was simply a happenstance of my history, over which I had no control. You had to be wealthy to own even one slave. Even a few free blacks owned slaves in Mississippi, but there were no plantations owned by free-black men. The reasons for black slave ownership were likely more personal. Free blacks sometimes purchased their wives and relatives as a path to freedom.
There is no history of wealth in my family. None that I’ve found were ever “rich” by monetary standards, but they have mostly been prosperous by the modest standards of sufficiency and sustainability. Like the majority of white families, most men prospered or failed as family farmers. That is true for the Berrys and Holyfields I’m most closely related to.
A plantation owner was part of an elite club occupied exclusively by the white gentry and top economic leaders. As with contemporary America, the largest corporate interests dominated political debates. Those Congressional debates centered on a few key issues.
Slavery: One of the most divisive issues was the question was whether slavery should be expanded into the new territories. Southern Democrats advocate for the extension of slavery into the new Western territories. In contrast, Northern politicians, led by Republicans, opposed the spread of slavery and advocated for its containment and eventual abolition.
Tariffs: The Federal government, dominated by the free states, imposed export tariffs on cotton, the largest export buyers were Europeans. Tariffs impacted the balance of trade with foreign markets, forcing the South to sell cotton at a discount to Northern manufacturers, the direct beneficiaries of the tariffs. Northern competitive advantage was gained at the expense of the Southern growers. Import tariffs were also imposed on manufactured goods and raw materials from European suppliers, materials needed for almost all agricultural operations, both large and small.
These tariffs did not just affect the large plantations but also the family farms like the Berry’s and Holyfield’s, who also sold their cotton into the same markets as the large plantations, and needed the same equipment, plows, and other manufactured goods, on their farms.
States' Rights vs. Federal Authority: Southern states and their Democratic Congressmen, emphasized states’ rights over federal power, arguing for the power to nullify federal laws and to secede from the Union. Northerners advocated for the supremacy of the federal government and the importance of preserving the Union. This difference was exacerbated by the tariffs and precipitated the “nullification crisis” with South Carolina in the 1830s, a precursor to what would later erupt into the Civil War.
Representation and Electoral Politics: Southern Democrats were concerned with maintaining political influence, which depended on the support of the large plantation owners and the preservation of the slave economy, given their dependence on large-scale agriculture. The Northern Republicans argued for federal investments in industrial infrastructure and promoted the growing national abolitionist movement.
These policy debates reflected a deeper ideological, economic, and cultural divide between North and South. Between the time Needham was born and the breakout of the Civil War in April of 1861, Needham had turned 16 and his younger brother William was 14.
Many 16-year-old boys, and sometimes younger, were eager to join the Confederate Army, especially at the beginning of the war. Needham was one of those boys. The typical age was 18, but especially early on, that was more of a guideline than a rule. I do not know exactly when Needham enlisted, but I have to wonder why. It almost certainly was not to protect the plantation system, his father’s primary competitor.
It is unlikely that free white men who owned no slaves nor substantial economic power would fight for remote plantation owners who competed with them in the cash-crop cotton business. Preserving the institution of slavery was not in their direct interest. But no doubt, the class deference between free whites and slave blacks became a deeply rooted cultural class distinction, reflecting the profound imbalance of power between them.
But why did Southern whites join against the North if the only issue was the right to own slaves, a right which they, themselves, could not exercise?
Some reasons might include these: Many Southern soldiers were motivated by loyalty to their home states and a desire to defend their communities and ways of life. Perhaps they saw themselves as fighting to protect their families, homes, and the land they lived on from what they perceived as Northern aggression or invasion. Whites were a numerical minority but had complete control of the economy, cultural norms, and the law. Perhaps some of the loyalty to states’ rights was wrapped up with that realization.
The concept of states' rights was deeply ingrained in Southern political culture, and many Southerners believed that the federal government was encroaching upon their states' autonomy and sovereignty. Some Confederate soldiers likely saw themselves as defending the principle of states' rights against what they viewed as an overreaching federal government. Tariffs had nearly precipitated a war 30 years earlier.
Many Southern soldiers felt a strong sense of cultural and regional identity, shaped by factors such as heritage, tradition, and shared experiences. They identified with the South as a distinct region with its own unique history, values, and way of life, and they were willing to fight to protect what they saw as their Southern identity against Northern encroachment.
Even today, a trip to the South by Northerners still seems like visiting a culturally foreign land. The cultural disparagement of Southerners by “Yankees” persists, even today. We stereotype Southerners as being slow, uneducated, and unsophisticated. TV commentators from the South receive “training” to eliminate their Southern accent, for example. None train themselves in how to speak like a Southerner. The most inherently respected accent, advertisers inform us, is British. Some habits die hard.
While slavery was a significant economic institution in the South, most Confederate soldiers were not slaveholders, nor did they directly benefit from the institution of slavery. Many were small farmers, laborers, craftsmen, and tradesmen who were economically marginalized or disenfranchised. Some motivations were fueled by economic grievances, such as opposition to high tariffs or perceived economic exploitation by Northern industrialists.
In some cases, social pressures, peer influences, and cultural norms played a role in motivating individuals to enlist in the Confederate Army. Patriotic fervor, a sense of duty, and a desire for adventure or glory also influenced enlistment decisions. Peer pressure for conformity is a strong social influence everywhere, but in my experience, it is particularly strong in the South. What other people think of you in the small-town Southern culture takes on monumental importance. No one wanted to be the man who shamefully refused to join the cause.
I don’t know when Needham joined the Army, but it appears he fought in the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads on June 10, 1864, 10 months before the war officially ended on April 9, 1865. It was a victory for the Confederacy. 3,500 soldiers defeated a combined force of 8,100 Union soldiers. Many of the Union soldiers were too weak from malnourishment to retreat and were taken captive.
At some point during those 10 months, Needham made his way back home to Prentiss. As the story goes, as passed along from distant relatives to my father to me, when soldiers were discharged, they had to make their way home on their own. Most did not have horses and simply walked home.
Brice’s Crossroads is nearest the town of Baldwyn, about 250 miles from Prentiss. The journey on foot would have taken between eight to ten days. As the story goes, he survived by eating green apples, which implies that he was traveling in the late summer or early fall. Apples mature and ripen in late fall.
When he arrived home, he must have been a sight to behold. Battle-worn, after an excruciating journey on foot with little to eat, he would have been ragged, emaciated, and barely recognizable. In any case, he was welcomed home by his father, Lewis, and the rest of his family, all of whom survived the war.
The literacy rate of soldiers at the time was very high, and many soldiers wrote letters or kept journals. Photography was becoming popular and accessible, resulting in thousands of images being captured. Newspapers and pamphlets detailing the war proliferated. All of these combined made the Civil War one of the most documented conflicts in history at the time. No writings from Needham have ever been discovered.
Lewis had hand-made a billfold from fine glove leather with several compartments for bills and documents. A leather strap threaded through loops, front and back, kept it closed. The act of retrieving such a billfold from one’s coat pocket, opening it up, and fanning it out to reveal its contents, would have been ceremonious. To give someone a billfold is an act of optimism for the future. It is a luxury item that denotes a future expectation of prosperity. It is a symbol of a father’s well-wishes for his son.
The craftsmanship is as meticulous and beautiful as the cursive writing of the time. It would have taken several days to produce, maybe even weeks of effort. Lewis must have made it in anticipation of his son’s return. Perhaps he received advanced word, or at least had faith in the idea that Needham would survive the war. Many didn’t.
Of the 750,000 to 1.2 million men who enlisted in the Confederate Army, there were 483,026 casualties: 94,000 killed in battle, 164,000 diseases, 194,026 wounded in action, and 31,000 prisoners of war. Even if you were not physically wounded, it is unlikely you would come home from the war as the same person who left. 69% of the Confederate Army were farmers.
Lewis presented Needham with this wallet as a welcome home present. He signed it inside, “Lewis Holifield.”
Here is Needham’s epitaph, penned by his preacher.
“N. H. Holyfield departed this life February 3rd., at about the age of seventy-five. He spent most all his life in Simpson County. Those who knew him best would gladly testify that Simpson County never had a better citizen than he was. He was a law-abiding and a law-loving man. Was a neighbor of the highest type, true and faithful in every way. Always ready to do his part in all worthy movements. He reared a fine family and did his best for them in every way he could. As a husband was true and upright; as a father he was loving and tender. He was spared to raise all his children to a mature age. His good wife went on before him hardly a year ago.
He was a loyal member of Stone Wall Baptist Church. It was the writer's privilege to be his pastor several years and always enjoyed his presence at church, knowing his heart was in the service. After services his body was put away by the side of his wife's body in the Strong River cemetery.
B. E. PHILLIPS, New Hebron, Miss.
Simpson County News, 21 Feb 1929, Thu, Page 5”
I particularly love this way of speaking: “He was spared to raise all his children to a mature age.” He was spared the grief of an early death to any of his children. What a beautiful way of saying it.
That grief must have filled Lewis while Needham was away. But the relief and gratitude of his survival must have been a precious gift. That feeling has been preserved in a little scrap of leather made by his hand.
Of his eight children, only one touched me directly, Dad’s mother, my grandmother, Ella. Another touched me indirectly, though I never met him in life.
Ella’s brother Hugh inherited the wallet when Needham died. My father, Louis Needham Berry, inherited it when Hugh died. I, Robert Louis Berry, inherited it when Dad died. And here it is, 160 years later.
While the slavery issue was monumental at the time and has nearly dominated the contemporary narratives of the Civil War, it is also a story of “the tyranny of the majority,” where the political power of the North, through policy-making and even banking, imposed exploitive economic pressures on the South to create advantages for themselves at the expense of southern states. Today the divides are less grographical. How far we’ve come, and how little we’ve changed.