Description
Warehouse Receipts from Carter’s Bonded Warehouse of Plains, GA, notated and signed by Jimmy Carter.
This lot includes 10 receipt tags, each for one bale of cotton. Measure 7.5″ x 3.25″. The number and weight of each bale are noted on the right side. These receipts are from the James E. Carter, Jr. and Mrs. Lillian G. Carter Copartners Trading Company, known as Carter’s Warehouse, under USDA License Number 2-2315. Each receipt has been stamped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Every receipt is made out to the Ardell Smith Estate. A unique piece of Carter ephemera.
With the untimely death of Earl Carter in 1953, Jimmy Carter left the Navy to return to Plains to run the family farming operations. The death of his father left the Carter family with very little money, forcing them to live in subsidized housing in Plains. As the national campaign for civil rights moved through the South, Carter was pressured to join the White Citizens Council, which pledged to retain the status quo of segregation in the South. He declined and the warehousing business was boycotted by his neighbors. As times improved, the economic welfare of the farms improved, and they were turning a profit by 1959. By 1963, when these warehouse receipts were issued, Carter was serving as a member of the Georgia State Senate, representing the 14th district.
