Legal and Financial Documents on Slaves and Slavery in the United States. 1756 Jan. 19 - 1869 Oct. 27

Finding Guide by Tony Gardner

2 Boxes (143 items)

Call no.: E445.A3L45 1756

The collection was purchased in the late 1970s by the library. It consists of bills of sale, bonds, writs, promissory notes, summons, wills of slave owners, and inventories of slaves. It also includes some criminal cases involving slaves and an anonymously authored play with characters who are slaves. Well over half the documents concern the state of Alabama with Lawrence County particularly well represented. The documents are organized by state and arranged by counties.

Use of this collection is facilitated by the detailed contemporary maps found in Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas (Special Collections elephant folio f G1019.J6 1864). There is also a collection of manumission documents in the Collections of...Affidavits Affirming Free Status to...Negroes, 1817-1857 (Special Collections E445.M3C6 1817), published slave accounts, and abolitionist literature.

Supporting source materials in our library for this collection are extensive. On microform there is the Federal Writers' Project (microfiche) consisting of slave narratives assembled from interviews with former slaves between 1936 and 1938, the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Collection (microcard) of 2,500 abolitionist pamphlets published before the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, and the Library of American Civilization (microfiche) which contains material on all aspects of black history from colonial time to the outbreak of World War I and is an excellent source for pro slavery literature. All these collections are indexed.

Box 1: Alabama

• Folder 1-2 -- Dallas Co., 1825, 1848.
• Folder 3-89 -- Lawrence Co., 1820-1869
• Folder 90 -- Morgan Co., 1863
• Folder 91 -- Tallapoosa Co.,1866
• Folder 92-93 -- Unknown Co., 1855, 1856
• Folder 94-106 -- Wilcox Co., 1832-1861

Box 2: Other States

• Folder 107 -- Windham Co.,Connecticut, 1770
• Folder 108-110 -- Coweta Co., Georgia, 1861-1863
• Folder 111 -- Randolph Co., Indiana, 1850
• Folder 112 -- Mercer Co., Kentucky, 1827
• Folder 113 -- Warren Co, Kentucky, 1867
• Folder 114 -- Caroll Parish, Lousiana, 1860
• Folder 115-116 -- Orleans Parish, Lousiana, 1811, 1814
• Folder 117 -- Buchanan, Co., Missouri, 18??
• Folder 118 -- New York, N.Y., 1756
• Folder 119 -- Staten Island, N.Y., 1784
• Folder 120-122 -- Bertie Co., N.C., 1824-1843
• Folder 123 -- Newport, R.I., 1756
• Folder 124 -- Cape Town, S.A., 1806
• Folder 125-126 -- Jasper Co., S.C., 1856
• Folder 127 -- Maury Co., Tennessee, 1828
• Folder 128 -- Smith Co., Tennessee, 1834
• Folder 129 -- Caroline Co., Virginia, 1759
• Folder 130 -- Clarke Co., Virginia, 1858
• Folder 131-133 -- New Kent Co., Virginia, 1798-1822
• Folder 134 -- Richmond Co., Virginia, 1848
• Folder 135-143 -- Place unknown, 1826-1863