224 résultats
1817SLAVERY005957W. Alexander York. 1817. First U.K. edition with additions to the Philadelphia printing. 12mo. 156 pages including 4 pages of adverts. Frontispiece. Original boards with paper backstrip and title label. Anthony Benezet 1713-1784 was a leading abolitionist.Early nameplates Thomas Marsh and Robert Langdon on front pastedown. Some foxing to prelims. Cup ring to front cover. Backstrip defective label rubbed. Very good. Scarce in original state. W. Alexander, York. hardcover
28345Confidant of Missouri pioneer Jonathan Bryan 1759-1846 of the noted St. Charles family whose relatives included their neighbor Daniel Boone. DS 1p 7½" X 12" St. Charles County MO 1847 February 2. Near fine. Acknowledgment that Tuter who signs himself as "Administrator of the Estate of Johnathan Bryan" has had a writ of replevin made out and issued to the St. Charles sheriff Edward C. Cunningham 1809-65 for delivery to an unnamed offender. The writ seeks to recover the following property apparently wrongfully taken from Jonathan Bryan's estate: "one negro man a Slave named Heney one Two horse waggon and one pair of Briches Two Black horses one Lorrel horse with bold face one walnut Cupboard one clock one Bureau one bedstead and bedding one walnut Table one Trunk one Bible." In other words everything but the kitchen sink. Signed at the conclusion by Tater in his definitely untutored hand. Tales of slaves are found in the Bryan family lore such as: "Mrs. Jonathan Bryan a kinswoman of Daniel Boone was working in her yard with a slave woman when a boy slave screamed. She saw an Indian warrior heading for them with a tomahawk in one hand and a gun in the other. The women ran for the house. Just as they were slamming the door they caught the warrior's head and right arm between the door and facing. The slave woman grabbed the hatchet from his hand and killed him with a sharp blow. The women had barely recovered from their fright when the boy shouted again." Could the slave boy in this old family legend by none less than the "Slave named Heney" whose return is demanded in this replevin suit Quite unusual slavery item with an intriguing history. unknown
1859017039Washington DC: Gales and Seaton 1859. Tabloid. Good. Side folding large tabloid newspaper. A single issue of this long running newspaper published in Washington DC first published in 1800 and publishing until 1870 with an eventual bias toward conservative Whig policies. Besides the usual ads and political news this issue contains two "Was Committed" notices last page bottom right one pertaining to Mary Norris George Park and Sally King the other pertaining to Lewis West. All four were African-Americans with Mary Norris George Park and Lewis West being enslaved people from enslaver Robert E. Lee. According to the US National Park Service website devoted to Robert E. Lee's Arlington House Memorial Mary Norris George Parks and another man Wesley Norris believed they were free based on a provision in the will of George Washington Custis. Based on this knowledge the three emancipated themselves traveling to Pennsylvania. They were all captured in Maryland. According to contemporary newspaper accounts New York Tribune in June 1859 Lee had the re-captured African-Americans whipped. Wesley Norris himself wrote an article in the Anti-Slavery Standard in 1866 which provides his account of the whipping. Early historians and biographers dismissed both accounts considering them to be accounts used for anti-slavery propaganda. Lee himself was silent on the subject with many of his contemporaries and historians taking his silence as a denial. However modern research suggests the accounts of Wesley Norris and others were true dispelling the myth of Lee as benevolent enslaver perpetuated by earlier historians. The first notice states that Norris Park and West were committed to jail on May 26th and that "George and Mary say they belong to Col. Robert Lee of Fairfax County Virginia." The complexion and height of all three are given as well as descriptions of the clothing they wore. Sally King asserted that she was free living in Washington with a Mrs. D. Bread. According to the piece they all initially left Washington on May 22nd 1859. The second notice contains the same information as the first although it appears Lewis West was jailed on May 27th but also asserted he "belongs to Col. Robert Lee." Both notices request that the "owner or owners" come forward and pay all charges due. Also present is a notice of "young servants for sale" indicating the availability of several girls from ages 11 to 15 as well as young men from 21 to 25 years old. All were apparently located in Georgetown. The newspaper is in GOOD condition. Paper split chipped and deteriorating along the spine with very slight loss of letters to some of the "was committed" ads. Horizontal and vertical fold creases present. Moderate toning along the spine edge. Small hole worn through at the intersection of the fold creases. Some wrinkling and creasing to the paper. Several small tears along the extremities. Gales and Seaton unknown
186062260Atlanta: Printed at the Daily Locomotive Job Office 1860. 47 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Original blue printed wrappers. Wrapper a bit chipped else Fine. 47 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Printed at the Daily Locomotive Job Office unknown
1871231181871. Slavery Black Labor Puerto Rico This official Puerto Rican slave registry document issued in Arecibo in 1871 under Spanish colonial administration represents the bureaucratic infrastructure of slavery in the Caribbean at the precise moment preceding abolition. Titled within the printed form as part of the "Registro de Esclavos - Isla de Puerto Rico" the document records the forced legal identity of an identified enslaved man. <br /> <br /> Single sheet slave registry document "Empadronamiento General de esclavos" from Arecibo Puerto Rico dated 20 de Enero de 1871. Measuring 6.25" x 8.5". This document was registered by a person registering their slave. Document bears official signatures from the local authorities. The enslaved person is listed by their age stature "color" hair color beard eyes nose and mouth. The person is listed as 22 years old and the "color" of this individual is listed as "negro". The physical list of classifications functioned as mechanisms of surveillance control and verification within the colonial slave system. Inclusion of official signatures from both the "dueño" and "comisario" along with a stamped fiscal seal en verso.<br /> <br /> Produced just two years prior to the 1873 abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico the document reflects the transitional legal environment in which enslaved individuals were increasingly catalogued in anticipation of emancipation policies that would in practice impose systems of forced apprenticeship and indemnification to former enslavers.<br /> Some minor wormholes and occasional spotting. Overall good condition. The document stands as evidence of how emancipation in Spanish territories was mediated through administrative control prolonging coercive labor conditions even as slavery was formally dismantled. unknown
185234901Glasgow Kentucky: W.S. Brown 1852. Early edition being a reprint of the 1851 Louisville edition. Each page printed within a decorative chain-line frame the stereotyped title-page makes reference to engravings but none are called for in this edition. Tall 8vo in the publisher's original brown cloth the covers with decorative embossing retaining the emblem of the Louisville publishers in blind the spine lettered in gilt and with flat bands ruled in blind powder-blue endpapers. xiii 569 8 8 ads pp. A sound copy the text-block well preserved and complete a bit of expected age toning to the paper and light foxing here and there as usual the binding with some age-wear but still very sturdy strong and tight. ONE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS PRO-SLAVERY BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. The author stylized himself as "the Rev. Josiah Priest" but was not ordained in any denomination.<br> The present Louisville text evolved from an earlier version titled "Slavery As It Relates to the Negro or African Race" published in 1843. It went through numerous editions and title changes during the 1840s and 1850s reflecting the growing sectional controversy over slavery. The popularity of the work exploded <br>in 1852 as it was viewed as a counter-argument to Stowe's pro-abolitionist epic UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.<br> The work's central claim is that slavery is fully sanctioned and approved of by the Bible. Among his arguments are: people of African descent were descendants of Ham and therefore subject to a divine curse; the racial differences were ordained by God; that slavery was beneficial or natural for Black people; and that abolitionism was a dangerous fanaticism threatening the social order and status quo.<br> Although repugnant to many modern readers the book is historically significant because it demonstrates how slavery's defenders tried to answer the growing abolitionist movement. The title also accurately states that the issue of slavery was going to divide the Republic thus predicting the Civil War. W.S. Brown hardcover
1830List2931Mahébourg Mauritius 1830. Single unsigned fourteen-page letter measuring 8 x 12 ¾ inches. Folded with some stains and pencil marks. Overall near fine. In 1830 Mauritius was a British colony captured from the French in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars. It was originally a Dutch colony and the Dutch had introduced enslaved labor to the islands. Enslaved people were imported from Madagascar India and Southeast Asia to harvest the valuable ebony trees and later to farm sugarcane. It became a French colony in 1715 and among other provisions the French government awarded upper-class colonists large land grants each with twenty enslaved people to work them. Slavery was abolished in 1835 under British rule after which the planters still farming sugarcane turned to indentured servant labor from India and China alongside illegal slavery.1<br /> <br /> Offered here is a lengthy single letter written by an unknown author to an unknown recipient from Mahébourg in 1830 shortly before this radical change. The letter describes the lives and economic circumstances of the planters and merchants and of the non-white population particularly Malabar people and free and enslaved Black people.<br /> <br /> Noting that “every inch of ground that will produce sugar cane is planted with it†including “the former fine gardens to some of the Habitations†the author reports on the situation for sugar planters:<br /> <br /> “The price of sugar here is not more than 20/per Cwt. for the best quality which does not now remunerate the Planter as his expenses are becoming every day more heavy in consequence of their slaves diminishing . The want of Slaves induced many of the Planters to send for Chinese Labourers and several hundreds were imported at a great expense but unfortunately they did not answer and were obliged to be reshipped for their native Country again at the charge of those who sent for them.â€<br /> <br /> The author later notes that “nearly everyone of the Planters have heavy mortgages on their Estates and are obliged to pay this immense Interest which keeps them poor and will I fear ultimately ruin themâ€. In fact the planters in British Mauritius had extra duties on their sugar exports compared with their Caribbean counterparts. The shopkeepers on the other hand “calculate on retiring with a fortune in five years– therefore you will fancy what must be their prices also their profits.â€<br /> <br /> Though writing from Mahébourg the author describes the capital city of Port Louis at length especially its Malabar Indian and free Black residents—the lives of the latter particularly the free Black women seem especially grim. They write:<br /> <br /> “The Centre of Port Louis is inhabited by all the respectable people and many most excellent houses buildings– the Catholic Chapel the English Church amongst the number. The Suburbs to the West is the part occupied by about 3000 Malabars called ‘Malabar Town.’ – They are dressed mostly in white with Turbans ear rings c c and the females with ornaments in their noses and on their Toes as they generally go bare foot. – Once a year they have what is called a ‘Yamsee’ or a festival in honor of Mehomet which lasts for about a fortnight during which time they seem to get no sleep a continual beating of tom toms – jingling of bells – carrying pagodas which are made of various coloured paper and most richly ornamented followed by all the population of their Caste with their faces daubed with red white c and which has a most ludicrous appearance. The Suburbs to the South is called ‘black Camp’ – the Houses being very small and poor and inhabited by all the free blacks as well as many Mulattoes. – Also a certain class of females of the population of colour – who are visited immediately on the Arrival of a Ship the Crews soon enquiring the way to the ‘Camp.’â€<br /> <br /> As regards relations between the races the author recounts an incident that followed the 1828 abolition of the color bar which would ostensibly give the free non-white population the same rights as the whites:<br /> <br /> “The Theatre is a very good one but has been closed for several months past the Actors Actresses gone to Bourbon in consequence of the promulgation of the act ‘causing all free people of the population of Colour’ to have the same laws – the same privileges as the Whites’ fearing they ought come to the Theatre which they had hitherto been forbidden thereby cause disturbances as the French Whites detest them wd. not sit in the same box it was considered best to shut the Theatre which is a great loss to the Place it being the chief public amusement and indeed the only one we have here.â€<br /> <br /> Overall a detailed letter giving insight into life in a slave colony at a time when significant changes were on the horizon. Of interest to scholars of the colonial history of Mauritius and the second wave of British colonialism.<br /> <br /> 1 Truth and Justice Commission Report of the Truth and Justice Commission Vol. 1 Mauritius: Government Printing 2011. unknown
18784011Various places in Cuba 1878. Overall good. 29 leaves varying sizes. In contemporary ad hoc selfwrappers loosely stitched. Rear wrap tattered. Varying degrees of toning and wear. Scattered offsetting throughout. Fascinating gathering of documents and letters that present several cases of Cuban slaves applying for their own freedom in 1878. The gradual abolition of slavery on the island was enacted by Spain in 1880 but prior to this there were several bureaucratic mechanisms by which enslaved people could apply for or purchase their own manumission. The most interesting case amongst the present manuscript documents is the claim of a male slave that states he was born free in Puerto Rico but was somehow included in an inheritance as a young boy transported to Cuba and sold into slavery:<br /> <br /> "Un individuo que hoy se encuentran en la Cárcel del Alacranes y que dice nombrase Juhan ó José Julian Quintana y ser esclavo actualmente de Dn. Serapio Hernandez dueño de los ingenios Escorial ubicado en Colon y Sta. Rosa en Limonar y vecino de esa Ciudad calle del Rio ha solicitado se le restituyan un derechos de libertad por haber nacídolibre en Puerto Rico de donde á la edad de 5 ó 6 años le trajeron à esta Ysla y vencieron como esclavo."<br /> <br /> Interesting for the study of manumission in late-colonial Cuba and certainly worthy of further research. unknown
18095958Havana 1809. Good. 1p. on a bifolium. Printed form completed in manuscript. Previously folded. Small portion of upper left corner torn away and some scattered worming neither affecting text. Upper right of blank conjugate leaf clipped. Some scattered staining and offsetting with even tanning. An early 19th-century bill of sale for four slaves in Havana. The form completed in manuscript approves the sale by Doña Dolores Hernandez of "quatros negros" who had been brought from the coast of Africa on the slave ship Juno captained by Jabez Gibbs 1360 reales. It further states that the enslaved men are "Con la calidad de bozal alma en boca huesos en costal à uso de férias sin asegurar de tachas ni enfermedades mal de corazon gota coral de S. Lazaro ni orta qualesquiera que puede paceder la humana naturaleza porque toas corren por cuenta del comprador." The document is signed by the relevant authorities and dated March 26 1809. A good document of the slave trade in Cuba during the early 1800s. unknown
18353546Southampton Va 1835. Fair. 8pp. of manuscript plus a loose sheet of manuscript measuring 12.5 x 4 inches written within a book on family medicine. Book disbound lacking title page and first text leaf some gatherings and leaves loose or detached. Some age toning to manuscript leaves. A unique manuscript family genealogy for the Worrell family of Virginia as recorded by several hands in the margins and blank portions of two middle pages and on a few terminal and end leaves of a contemporary copy of a sammelband of two early American imprints -- The Family Adviser 1793 and John Wesley's Primitive Physic 1795 revised and corrected and on a single folded sheet folded and laid into the book. The entries within the book detail the births of the children of Josiah and Alice Worrell and sometimes their in-laws. An example of the former: "Lewis Worrell Son of Josiah Worrell & Alice his wife was born March 7 / 1774." And an example of the latter: "Polley Worrell wife of the said Lewis Worrell was born March the 9th / 1781." The entries continue much the same with the latest-dated entry reading: "Benj. Eldridge Worrell Son of Lewis Worrell & Temperance his wife was born June 21st 1835." Sometime presumably in the 1790s a member of the family also listed out a long accounting of the births of Josiah Worrell's children on a longer piece of paper folded into the present work. Titled in manuscript "Ages of Josiah Worrell's children" this sheet again begins with Lewis Worrell and lists a total of six members of the Worrell family.<br /> <br /> Most interestingly the bottom of this sheet also contains the births of four family slaves. This listing reads as follows: "Negro Ages. Ben was born the 8th day of June 1783. Solomon was born Dec. 20th 1785. Simon was born Feby. the 14th 1790. Isam was born the 20th Dec. 1792." The inclusion of the birth dates of four slaves is highly unusual in a family record of this type but remains valuable information on the lives of these four enslaved men owned by the Worrell family. unknown
185012963Charleston SC: Printed by Walker & Burke February 7 1850. Partially-printed document completed in manuscript 13 x 8 inches. Old folds minor toning and offsetting. Very good. A very rare pre-printed form from antebellum South Carolina designed specifically for documenting the sale of slaves in Charleston in the mid-19th century. The document emanates from the Court of Equity and directs the estate of Gilbert C. Geddes to sell five named slaves to James Hopkinson for $2075. The names of the slaves are Sam Nelly Daphne Simon and Jenny. The document is signed by James W. Gray Master in Equity in the case of "Bank of the State of South Carolina vs. the Executrix of Gilbert C. Geddes et al" and by William E. Seabrook as witness. Gray adds a particularly insidious note near the bottom of the document when he writes that Hopkinson is entitled to "have and hold" the aforementioned five slaves "together with the future issue and increase of the females." Geddes 1806-1848 a wealthy Charleston resident owned more than a hundred enslaved people when he died; his father John Geddes served as governor of South Carolina 1818-1820. This is the first example of this document we have seen and a unique record of the transference of five slaves and particularly interesting for granting the new slaveowner the rights to future slave children. Printed by Walker & Burke, February 7 unknown
1852100540<p>Letterpress braodsheet 10 3/4 x 6 1/4 text on both sides. Margins trimmed on both sides a little uneven on the left side close to words on reverse but not affecting text a few small stains in text. Indiana was for many years a site of refuge for escaping slaves. With this joint resolution the document declares that the only real way to do away with the injustice of slavery was to advocate emigration and colonialization of Africa.</p>
130002Very Good. Quarto 4 pages a bifolium comprising 3 pages of text with the last page used for address purposes. Creased where folded for posting; slight loss to the leading edge of the second leaf where torn open removing one word of text; overall in excellent condition. The letter dated 10 December 1791 and carried privately by ship from Kingston is addressed to 'Messrs Newton Gordon & Murdoch Merchants Madeira'. A number of lesser matters are touched upon but the letter deals primarily with the importation of wine: 'I cannot at present ascertain what quantity of wine I shall be able to dispose of next year as I have 20 pipes on hand and sales are slow from the great quantity at market; however you will please ship me twenty pipes of York market wine Barbadoes Gauge & 12 Iron hoops at first convenient opportunity'. As often with letters of any age the first paragraph contains an apology for the tardy response: 'I have first to beg your excuse for my silence and then to explain how it happen'd. The beginning of March last I set out in haste for the Havana with a small cargo of negroes and expected to sell them immediately but was detain'd there till the end of July'. unknown
1819190417Albemarle County VA: 1819-1823. A revealing survival from early 19th-century Virginia: the last will and testament of Isaac Hardin a prominent citizen and first legal owner of the land now known as the Greenwood historic district in Albemarle County. The will transfers ownership of 13 enslaved persons. In his will written in June 1819 and notarized and effected in May 1823 the ailing Hardin leaves the vast majority of his possessions to his wife Elizabeth. This includes the mansion house and plantation along with a number of enslaved persons: Juber Milly Milly's children Willis and Mary Ann and two girls named Hannah and Pheby. The enslaved people are mentioned in the will after Hardin's property and before the listing of his livestock. Later in the will he also transfers legal ownership of a man named Anderson to his oldest son Berry M. Hardin and of six other enslaved people to his daughter Lucinda Scott. The will was signed by Hardin with his mark and witnessed by four individuals on June 26 1819 and was later notarized on May 31 1823. We can assume that Hardin's will was carried out upon his death in 1820 and advertisements for a trust sale in 1830 tell us that much of this same property was later auctioned off including all of the enslaved men and women left to Elizabeth except for Hannah and Pheby who were singled out as Elizabeth's "to have and to hold and to dispose of as she may think proper". Bifolium handwritten on three pages docketed and with remnants of wax seal on fourth page. Old folds some damage to second leaf from where seal was removed not touching text. Very good. unknown
1856218<b>First edition of "the most complete record available" of the controversial Pennsylvania case on fugitive slaves establishing a "precedent set in federal and state courts… and important cause célèbre for the antislavery movement" crucial in asserting a clear path for the following year's Dred Scott decision and provoking a "legal crisis… that led to the Civil War" elusive in original cloth. An overall clean text with soiling on top of pages 1-16 & pgs. 161-191 and contemporary ink marginalia by Strawbridge on a few pages. John Strawbridge is inscribed in old ink on page prior to title page. A book which has become difficult to find in the original cloth.</b> Uriah Hunt & Son hardcover
1807177680London: Richard Phillips 1807. First edition of this account of the British colonies within modern-day Guyana. Bolingbroke was a staunch supporter of the Transatlantic slave trade which he discusses in Chapter Five and dedicated this work to the colonial secretary William Windham. Henry Bolingbroke 1785-1855 was a Norfolk merchant who first visited Demerara in 1798. This region had been under the control of the French and Dutch until it was captured by the British in 1796. Bolingbroke remained in the colony until 1805; he then travelled to Surinam in Dutch Guiana to become Deputy Vendue Master in 1807 responsible for public sales and auctions including those of enslaved people. He was one of the 16 MPs who voted against the abolition of slavery in March 1807. In Chapter Five Bolingbroke writes about slavery and what he viewed as its economic importance. In his dedication to Windham 1750-1810 he praised him for relaxing monopoly restrictions and "resisting the abolition of a liberty essential at new settlements of importing additional labourers" p. iii. Quarto pp. xii 400. Folding engraved map. Original green paper-covered boards rebacked modern spine label edges untrimmed. Signature of one George Atkinson on front pastedown a few pencil notes internally. Spine head stabilized boards marked foxing and toning to map and contents two small closed tears to map repaired offsetting to title page: a very good copy. Sabin 6182. hardcover
179928145London: Printed by George Eyre and Andrew Strahan Printers to the King's most Excellent Majesty 1799 1799. ESTC N60288 Lincoln's Inn Library and Wellcome Institute. Fine. 4to disbound paginated 637-652 untrimmed. An act passed by Parliament in the summer of 1799 delineated in 39 paragraphs that regulated the slave trade beginning in August 1800 - an act no doubt intended to placate the growing voices of opposition to the English slave trade. The act stipulates how many slaves could be stowed in a ship by mathematical formula according to the size of the ship but never more than 400; that slaves must be separated from other cargo; and that the space for the slaves "be full and complete perpendicular height of five feet." Nothing is said about their treatment other than that the ship's surgeon was required keep a log of illnesses and deaths of both slaves and crew. Much of the act is taken up with its enforcement and the penalties and fines for violations; it also regulates the conditions and treatment of the crew. The acts of Parliament were usually published separately and later issued in collections of the Public General Statutes; this one was issued as part of the collection of statues Passed in the Thirty-Ninth Year of the Reign of His Majesty King George the Third: Being the Third Session of the Eighteenth Parliament of Great Britain. This copy is disbound from such a volume. (London: Printed by George Eyre and Andrew Strahan, Printers to the King's most Excellent Majesty, 1799) unknown
1842313227Philadelphia: stereotyped by L. Johnson 1842. First edition. 140 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Original brown ribbed cloth rebacked with original spine laid down titled in gilt. Marginal dampstaining throughout scattered foxing some wear to boards good. First edition. 140 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. First edition of this report of this monumental Supreme Court decision regarding escaped slaves preceding by 15 years and rivaling in importance the Dred Scott case of 1857. "In Prigg the Court identified slavery as a core constitutional commitment with which states could not interfere. In this case the Court struck down northern states' 'personal liberty laws' established to protect alleged fugitive slaves from recapture without due process of law. When the professional 'slave catcher' Edward Prigg tried to remove Margaret Moran an alleged runaway he was unable to meet the burden of proof set out by Pennsylvania's 1826 Personal Liberty Law and failed to obtain the legal certificate permitting him to remove her. When Prigg proceeded to ignore this and removed Moran illegally to Maryland Pennsylvania convicted him of kidnapping. The US Supreme Court however overwhelmingly overturned Prigg's conviction 8-1 and pronounced state laws interfering with the return of alleged runaways a violation of the Fugitive Slave Clause." Beaumont The Civic Constitution 2014 p. 128. Blockson 9905; Dummond p. 140; Sabin 61207 stereotyped by L. Johnson unknown
18224276Howard County Mo 1822. Good. Three documents totaling 3pp. folio the two earliest documents written on each side of the same leaf with an integral blank and attached to the third document with sealing wax each document docketed on verso. Some short separations along folds minor spotting two short tape repairs. A series of three documents recording a case of slave theft in Missouri. The plaintiff in the case George W. Hardin sues a man named Urial Bailey for stealing three slaves from the Hardin estate in Howard County Missouri. The first document is a sworn oath dated May 23 1822 by George Hardin stating that "He was lawfully possessed of the negroes.and that the same were unlawfully taken by Urial Bailey.from his properties and with out his consent within one year last past and that he is now lawfully entitled to the possession of the said negroes." The document is attested by the clerk and signed by Hardin.<br /> <br /> The second document is executed by Hardin's lawyers on the verso of his oath dated the same day and constitutes an order from the court to the Sheriff of Howard County informing him that "George W. Hardin hath come into the Circuit Court held in the town of Franklin and found sufficient sureties as well as his clamour to prosecute for a certain woman called Dolly about the age of twenty eight years also one negro boy of about the age of nine years named Nathan also one negro girl called Eliza about the age of three years all the property of the said Plaintiff.which a certain Uriel Bailey.hath taken and unjustly detains. You are hereby commanded that the said goods.be delivered to the said George W. Hardin and that.Uriel Bailey appear before the said Circuit Court to be held at the town of Franklin."<br /> <br /> The third document is executed by Hardin's lawyers on the verso of his oath dated September 1822 and lays out the facts of the case. It reads in part: "George W. Hardin by his Attorney Tompkins & French complains of Urial Bailey that he took the previously named slaves of great value. To wit of the value of fifteen hundred dollars.where fore the said Plaintiff saith that he is injured and hath sustained damages to the value of five hundred dollars and therefore he brings suit." Interestingly in this document Hardin's lawyers refer to the youngest slave Eliza as a "mulatto girl." Docketing on the integral blank attached to the oath and lawyer's document dated May 23 1822 indicate that Hardin was seeking "Replevin Damages" of $500 which the court seems to grant. <br /> <br /> The motive behind Urial or Uriel Bailey's thefts are not recorded here but the issue of slave stealing was not uncommon and had been going on in the American colonies and the fledgling United States for a long time. According to Timothy F. Reilly in "Slave Stealing in the Early Domestic Trade as Revealed by a Loyal Manservant" published in Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association Vol. 55 No. 1 Winter 2004 pp.5-39: "Slave stealing plagued domestic slaveholders as far back as the colonial period when those who would unlawfully deprive a property owner of human chattel were detested as 'Negro jockeys.' Whether operating in the northern or southern colonies a 'man-stealer' lurking about either as a piratical thief or as a high-minded abolitionist was guilty of one of the worst crimes against the sanctity of property. By the 1830s man stealing reached epidemic levels in parts of the South."<br /> <br /> Despite the seeming prevalence of slave theft for a long period of time in the United States primary source records of court cases are very scarce. unknown
1865231171865. Civil War Black Military Slavery Virginia Confederate government imprint documenting one of the clearest bureaucratic efforts to formalize the use of enslaved labor in direct support of the Confederate war effort at the very moment of institutional collapse. Issued in Richmond Virginia in January 1865 and printed by the Confederate House of Representatives. The document responds to a congressional inquiry into the impressment of enslaved people explicitly acknowledging state-directed seizure of enslaved men for military labor. Within the text the Confederate state attempts to regulate this extraction noting limits such as "no more than one out of five male slaves between the ages specified. from any one owner" while simultaneously confirming large-scale requisitions including "5000 slaves from the State of Virginia for service with the army of Northern Virginia." The language reveals both the administrative reach of the Confederate state and its dependence on enslaved labor as a logistical backbone in the war's final phase.<br /> <br /> Octavo pamphlet measuring 9.5" x 6" 5 pages printed in Richmond Virginia January 1865. The text includes titled sections "Message of the President" "Communication from Secretary of War" "Resolution of House of Representatives" and "Response of Superintendent of Conscription" along with dated correspondence from December 1864 through January 1865. The imprint corresponds to Parrish and Willingham 2298. As a primary source the pamphlet holds substantial institutional value for collections in African American history Civil War studies and the history of slavery particularly for research into the transition from plantation labor systems to militarized coercion and the administrative mechanisms of late Confederate governance.<br /> The pamphlet is especially significant for how it exposes internal contradictions within Confederate ideology. While the Confederacy had long resisted arming or formally incorporating enslaved people in ways that might destabilize slavery this document demonstrates a late-war shift toward coercive mobilization framed as "employment" to "increase the efficiency of the army." Additional correspondence from Brig. Gen. Jno. S. Preston and Major Gen. J. L. Kemper details the mechanics of requisition emphasizing proportional seizure across slaveholders and acknowledging prior errors in impressment including the improper inclusion of enslaved people outside prescribed categories. Condition shows light toning minor spotting and edge wear consistent with age; paper remains stable with clear legible text throughout; faint institutional stamp present on front. Overall very good condition. This document underscores how the Confederate war effort relied on systems of exploitation applied to enslaved African American men. unknown
1870231221870. Slavery Cuba Spanish colonial slave sale manuscript recording the transfer of four enslaved individuals in Cuba in 1870. Produced within the official bureaucratic framework of Spanish colonial governance the document reflects the legal normalization of slavery in Cuba even as abolitionist pressures mounted across the Atlantic world. The document records the sale of four enslaved people described as "criollos" and African-born individuals situating the transaction within a labor system that combined locally born and imported enslaved populations. Created at a time when Spain had formally restricted the transatlantic slave trade but continued to permit slavery itself the manuscript demonstrates the persistence of legalized human commodification and the integration of enslaved labor into the island's economic structure sixteen years prior to abolition in 1886.<br /> <br /> Official Cuban slave contract documenting the sale of four enslaved individuals to Don Pedro Catasús by Don Enfemia Ochoa for the sum of 1100 pesos on November 29 1870. Single manuscript leaf written in Spanish cursive in black ink measuring 8.25" x 12". A green "50 cs de escudo" revenue stamp is affixed at the top center with a blind embossed Spanish crest at the upper left and a circular black ink government seal impressed at the lower left. Large vertical docketing appears on the verso. A stylized watermark is visible within the paper. The text organizes the enslaved individuals within a standardized transactional structure while the signatures of Enfemia Ochoa Pedro Catasús and A. Díaz de Rada authenticate the exchange and identify participants within the slaveholding economy.<br /> <br /> By 1870 Cuba remained a central node in the late Atlantic slave system with plantation agriculture especially sugar dependent on enslaved labor despite mounting abolitionist pressure. Although Spain had curtailed official slave imports earlier in the century illegal trafficking persisted into the 1860s and other coerced labor systems including the importation of Chinese indentured workers overlapped with slavery into the 1870s. The presence of both Creole and African individuals in this document reflects the layered composition of the enslaved population during this period. Light toning scattered foxing and edge wear visible. A closed wormhole extends from the upper right margin approximately five inches into the sheet resulting in partial loss of text. Evidence of prior tape reinforcement visible on the verso along with offsetting from previously adjacent material. Overall in very good condition. This document provides named transactional evidence of late-period slavery in Cuba offering concrete material for examining race labor and legal practice within Spanish colonial society. unknown
1870231191870. Slavery Cuba Spanish colonial manuscript documenting the late persistence of slavery in Cuba recording the sale of five enslaved Creole individuals including women and children 1870. Produced within the official bureaucratic framework of Spanish colonial governance the document reflects the legal normalization of slavery in Cuba even as abolitionist pressures mounted across the Atlantic world. The presence of multiple children within the transaction underscores the hereditary nature of enslavement and the commodification of family units offering direct material evidence of how slavery functioned socially and economically in its final decades on the island. Although Spain had formally ended the transatlantic slave trade earlier in the century illegal trafficking and internal slave markets persisted and slavery itself would not be abolished in Cuba until 1886 placing this document within a crucial transitional period marked by reform debates gradual emancipation laws and continued exploitation.<br /> <br /> Official Cuban slave contract recording the sale of five enslaved individuals identified as "criollos" including one adult woman and four children from Santiago Simón Fambi to Don Pedro Catasús for the sum of 1200 pesos on November 21 1870. Single page manuscript leaf measuring 8.25" x 12". The manuscript is written in Spanish cursive hand in black ink. The upper left bears a blind embossed crest of Spain while a circular black ink government seal is impressed at the lower left partially overlapping the text. The text enumerates the enslaved individuals with ages and names embedding human lives within the formulaic language of sale and valuation while the bold signatures of both seller Santiago Simón Fambi and buyer Pedro Catasús anchor the transaction in identifiable actors within the colonial economy.<br /> <br /> By 1870 slavery in Spanish Cuba remained central to the island's plantation economy particularly in sugar production which had expanded rapidly in the mid-19th century with industrialized mills and global demand. Enslaved people were primarily forced into agricultural labor under highly regimented and brutal conditions though others were used in urban domestic service skilled trades or as hired laborers generating income for their owners. This document exhibits light toning edge wear and scattered foxing throughout. A closed wormhole extends approximately two inches from the upper right margin inward not affecting legibility of the text. Minor losses and small tears along the edges. Overall in very good condition. Given that this document records a woman and four children the family was likely intended for a combination of field labor and domestic or auxiliary work with the children gradually incorporated into plantation labor as they aged reflecting the system's reliance on both immediate exploitation and the reproduction of enslaved labor over time. unknown
1815201561815. Manuscript fiscal records from antebellum Virginia demonstrate how enslaved people were formally incorporated into legal and economic systems as taxable property. These documents record enslaved individuals not as citizens but as items of assessed value within the personal property systems that structured the slave economy. Such records provide direct evidence of the bureaucratic mechanisms through which slavery functioned in the United States revealing how local governments and property holders catalogued enslaved African Americans alongside land livestock and other assets. The present group of Virginia documents dating from 1815 to 1854 records the ownership and taxation of enslaved people in Washington County during the decades preceding the Civil War.<br /> <br /> Archive of three manuscript fiscal documents from Washington County Virginia dated between 1815 and 1854. The earliest document dated 1 April 1815 records "A list of land & slaves owned by Jacob Campbell the first day of April 1815. The first district of Virginia Washington City." A second associated receipt enumerates eight enslaved persons identified by gender and age categories with assigned monetary values totaling 2170 dollars. A later tax receipt dated 1848 documents revenue obligations for Robert L. Berry and John Berry and includes "Slaves" among taxable property categories alongside horses clocks and land. The third document a tax receipt issued to Miss Francis Jane Irby in 1854 records taxable categories including "Black" titheables in addition to land salary and road levies reflecting the legal classification of enslaved African Americans within Virginia's tax system. Together the documents demonstrate the routine administrative recording of enslaved people as financial assets within county taxation and property accounting.<br /> <br /> Virginia occupied a central role in the history of American slavery. The first documented Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia in 1619 and by the mid nineteenth century enslaved African Americans constituted a substantial portion of the state's population. By the 1860 census more than one third of Virginia's inhabitants were enslaved people whose labor sustained the agricultural economy of the region. Manuscript tax records such as these provide stark evidence of the legal and economic framework that reduced human beings to taxable property within local government systems. Three manuscript documents measuring approximately 6.75 x 2 inches to standard letter size. Original folds present with minor foxing and a small chip to the lower left corner of one document; docketing on versos; text clear and legible. Overall condition very good. unknown
94420London Joseph Cross n.d. but c. 1825. . Hand coloured engraved map. The map shows the extent 30° north and south of the Equator in which sugar is grown. Australia is still shown as New Holland. 29.8 cm x 23.7 cm 11¾" x 9¼". Framed and glazed.<br /> Scarce colour-coded map concerning the sugar trade and its link to slavery.<br /><br />The section shaded yellow is the appropriate climate for the growing of sugar. The section shaded red is the area from which Britain may obtain sugar cheaply parts of South America and the West Indies under British rule. The blue section shows where Britain is unable to obtain sugar due to the devastating effects of the slave trade. The pink and green areas are those from which the sugar trade is limited by high duties and restrictions. The argument is that the duties and restrictions are there to protect the slave trade and ultimately damage the British economy.<br /><br />James Cropper was a successful and wealthy Quaker merchant philanthropist and disciple of Adam Smith. A major force in the anti-slavery movement he believed that eliminating tariff protections would lead to the end of slave labour in the West Indies. Cropper himself had interests in East Indian sugar and therefore stood to benefit from the reduction of tariffs which colored his role in the abolition movement. Nevertheless 'in Cropper's mind the intensity of Quaker Quietism had fused with the economic optimism of Adam Smith. Anti-slavery confirmed this union endowing laissez-faire with an immediate moral and spiritual purpose and enriching his faith in the inevitability of human progress' Davis James Cropper and the British Anti-Slavery Movement 1961.<br /> London, Joseph Cross, n.d. [but c. 1825]. unknown
18445887Washington DC: June 7 1844. Very good. Broadside 12.25 x 7.75 inches. Light tanning shallow marginal chips and some fraying to left and right edges. An unrecorded slip-bill printing of a House Resolution with a phenomenal back story involving an erudite elusive and resourceful Florida slave. The slip bill authored by Howell Cobb U.S. Representative from Georgia stipulates that the Secretary of the Treasury pay the sum of five hundred dollars to the heirs and representatives of Antonio Pacheco a former resident of Florida the sum "being the price of a slave named Lewis which was sent out by the United States with the Seminole Indians and lost to his owners." That's where the plot thickens. The slave is now known to history as Luis Fatio Pacheco born in 1800 to enslaved parents on the "New Switzerland" plantation in Florida which was surrounded by a mix of Europeans Africans and Native Americans. As such Luis became fluent in several languages including Seminole which later made him a valuable asset.<br /> <br /> After a conflict with his owner Luis attempted to escape slavery in 1824 by fleeing to Spanish fisheries on Florida's Gulf Coast but he was captured by U.S. military authorities the following year. Skilled as he was in languages and literacy by the military Luis was sold in 1832 to Antonio Pacheco a Cuban merchant. After Antonio's death Luis became the property of Pacheco's widow. When tensions began to ratchet up again between American military forces and the Seminole tribe a U.S. Army officer made a deal to rent Luis from the Pacheco estate at the rate of $25 a month to take advantage of his services as an interpreter. In December 1835 Luis was accompanying a troop detachment led by Major Frances L. Dade in a march to reinforce Fort King near the present-day city of Ocala Florida. Evidently that day Luis was assigned as a scout; he has said to have attempted to warn Dade of a possible ambush by the Seminoles which went unheeded by the commander. The result is today known as the Dade Massacre in which Dade and most of his men were killed.<br /> <br /> According to the narrative provided by Luis who spoke Seminole he explained to the warriors that he was a slave and successfully pleaded for his life. Luis lived with the Seminoles as a captive for nearly two years before again managing to escape. In September 1837 Luis surrendered to the U.S. Army at Fort Peyton near St. Augustine. Soon after he was accused of collaborating with the Seminoles in the Dade Massacre. In 1841 negotiations between the US government and Seminole leader Coacoochee the Native American leader claimed Luis as his property captured in war. Coacoochee was permitted to take Luis together with other Black Seminoles to Oklahoma for resettlement. This event led to the claim by Anthony Pacheco‘s heirs for restitution of a lost slave. The Joint Committee on Claims approved the claim. Luis's story eventually became a focal point in the abolitionist argument against slavery and in 1858 Ohio representative Joshua R. Giddings published a book portraying Luis as a hero against the system. In any case the question of whether or not Luis betrayed Dade has never been completely resolved. June 7 unknown