Acquisition of the Governor Benjamin Franklin Perry Papers

The South Carolina Department of Archives and History (SCDAAH) is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Governor Benjamin Franklin Perry papers, 1722-1977 (bulk 1825-1904). The collection was recently transferred to SCDAH from the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) in Montgomery, AL, which acquired the material in the early twentieth century. Louise Bankhead Perry, wife of Governor Perry’s son, William Hayne Perry, originally placed the collection at the ADAH, where her brother-in-law, Thomas McAdory Owen, was director. The collection also includes papers related to the political career of William Hayne Perry, who served in the SC House of Representatives (1865-1866), SC Senate (1880-1884), and US House of Representatives (1884-1890).

In 2022, the SCDAH asked the ADAH to consider transferring the material to South Carolina, where it would be more accessible to historians of the Palmetto State. After determining that the collection consists almost entirely of records created or owned by the Perry family and relating to South Carolina history, the ADAH Board of Trustees approved the deaccession of the eleven cubic feet of materials and its return to the state archives in Columbia.

At the conclusion of the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson appointed Perry provisional governor of South Carolina, a position he would occupy from June 30 to December 21, 1865.  Importantly, Perry oversaw the creation and adoption of the state’s fifth constitution, which recognized the abolition of slavery, made representation in the General Assembly more equitable for white men, and provided for the popular election of the governor and presidential electors. It failed, however, to provide civil rights to the state’s recently-emancipated African American majority and would be replaced by another constitution in 1868. 

Born in Pickens County, South Carolina in 1805, Perry attended South Carolina College to study law and was admitted to the state bar in 1827.  He began a career in journalism, becoming editor of the Greenville Mountaineer and the Southern Patriot before turning to politics during the 1830s. Perry voted against the Ordinance of Nullification at the state convention in 1832, and thereafter was a committed Union Democrat. He made three unsuccessful bids for election to Congress (1834, 1835 and 1848), but he would serve eleven terms in the state House of Representatives between 1836-1864 and two terms in the state Senate from 1844-1847. Despite his strong Unionist sympathies, Perry sided with South Carolina, when the state seceded on December 20, 1860. During the Civil War, he served in several statewide positions under the Confederate government. On October 30, 1865, he was elected to the U.S. Senate but was denied his seat by the Republican-controlled Congress. He subsequently was a vocal opponent of African American suffrage and the Fourteenth Amendment. He died at Sans Souci, his home in Greenville, on December 31, 1886.

“This collection provides valuable information about South Carolina politics at a critical time in the state’s history. It is especially valuable in bridging the gap between the records of the state’s Civil War governors and the Reconstruction-Era governors who followed Perry’s administration. We are eternally grateful to ADAH director Steve Murray and the ADAH Board of Trustees for their efforts to return this collection to the State of South Carolina,” remarked W. Eric Emerson, Ph.D., Director, SHPO, and State Archivist at SCDAH.

“Returning the Perry collection to South Carolina is in accordance with our commitment to good stewardship,” said Murray. “If the situation were reversed, Alabama would desire to see the return of a former governor’s papers to Montgomery, so they could be accessible to researchers and educators.”

The papers of Governor Perry are available for viewing during regular SCDAH visitor hours, Tuesday –Saturday, 8:30 AM-5:00 PM.