Joseph Brown's appeal of the Loudoun County, Virginia, court's decision denying the validity of a verbal gift of two slaves from his father Thomas. Virginia General Court orders a new contestation of the case. Order signed by Benjamin Waller as clerk of the court.

On December 15, 1762, Joseph Brown produced three witnesses to the verbal agreement before the Loudoun County Court. The court determined that the depositions of the witnesses were sufficient to establish the gift. Thomas Brown was granted the right of appeal to the General Court.

]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Othello. The Othello was a slave ship owned by Samuel and William Vernon of Newport, Rhode Island. It departed Rhode Island August 23, 1772 bound for Africa and brought the slaves it obtained to Rappahannock in Virignia. The details of this voyage are recorded in The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. Correspondence concerning this voyage may be found in Donnan, Elizabeth, ed. Documents illustrative of the slave trade to America. Vol. 3. New York: Octagon Books, 1969.]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> The Pennsylvania Gazette, April 17, 1740, Numb. 592]]> An appraisal of the personal property and slaves of Dr. William Pasteur in Williamsburg created for the Hustings Court. The appraisal consists largely of household furnishings, textiles and slaves. The sixteen slaves in the appraisal account for over sixty per cent of the value of Dr. Pasteur's Williamsburg estate. Also included in the appraisal are horses, harness and vehicles.

Dr. William Pasteur was a notable figure in Williamsburg. He established his first Williamsburg apothecary shop in 1759. In 1775 he formed a partnership with his Williamsburg competitor, Dr. John Minson Galt. From 1776-1776 Pasteur served as mayor of Williamsburg. Pasteur retired from the Pasteur and Galt Apothecary in 1778. In his will, Pasteur empowered his executors to sell his lands in Goochland and all his personal property except for his slaves. He directed the executors to apply the proceeds of the sale to the payment of his debts, gave specific bequests to particular slaves, and left what did not sell, along with a bequest of 500 Pounds, to his wife Elizabeth.

]]> Rights and reproductions]]> The slave ship Brooks was originally drawn in 1788 by William Elford for the Plymouth chapter of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. It was arguably the most effective image in the British effort to abolish the slave trade. Here it is published as part of Carl Bernhard Wadstrom's An Essay on colonization... Created shortly after passage of the Dolben Act, an act which regulated the number of slaves on British vessels based upon their tonnage, the image shows 482 slaves packed tightly in the hold; that being the maximum allowed according to the new legislation. The accompanying text points out that on her last voyage before the passage of the Dolben Act the Brooks carried 609 slaves from Africa to America. The reader is left to imagine how such a scene would have looked.

The image showing an insurrection on a slave ship was added for Wadstrom's publication. The crew of the ship can be seen firing down onto the slaves from behind a barricado which was a standard defensive barrier erected on slaving vessels.

]]> Rights and reproductions]]> An Essay on colonization, particularly applied to the Western Coast of Africa ... by C.B. Wadstrom. London : Printed for the author ..., 1794.]]> The slave ship : a human history. New York : Penguin Books, 2007. See chapter 10: The long voyage of the slave ship Brooks.]]> Printed will of Deborah Morris in which she devised and bequeathed her exensive assets to family and others including her sister, Elizabeth Shoemaker, nieces, Elizabeth Lightfoot, Abigail Griffiths, Phebe Morris, Sarah Buckley, and to her attendant Rachel Baremore. Morris made provisions for funds to be paid to the Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia Dispensary and free negro school in the form of annual annuities from the devised properties. Concerning the annuities to the school Morris wrote: "And before I conclude my will, I feel it necessary to mention that I hope none of my dear relatives will think my donations in favor of the free negro school too large, as it appears to me to be a debt due to the posterity of those whom our predecessors kept in bondage." Owen Jones, senior, Sauel Coates, Jonathan Jones, Anthony Wistar Morris and Samuel Powel Griffiths were named as executors.

 

Deborah Morris was the daughter of wealthy Philadelphian Anthony Morris. A Quaker, she was noted for her piety, individuality and eccentricity.

]]> Rights and reproductions]]> This anti-slavery broadside was written to encourage consumers to refrain from purchasing goods produced by West Indian slaves. It uses examples of abuses presented to Parliament and published in An Abstract of the evidence delivered before a select committee of the House of Commons in the years 1790 & 1791 on the part of the petitioners for the abolition of the slave trade to refute the arguments of pro-slavery apologists who "extol a state of servitude as a happy asylum ..."

The broadside was published by Samuel Wood of New York City. Wood was at the address noted in the imprint from 1805-1808. The engravings were created by Alexander Anderson. The text and illustrations in this broadside also appear in The mirror of misery, or, Tyranny exposed first issued by Wood in 1807.

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]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Rights and reproductions]]> Letter from Walter Jones to Robert Carter, III of Nomony Hall concerning the estate of William Flood (Jones' father-in-law), the public accounts incurred by the troops in Northumberland and rumors of a smallpox outbreak amongst Carter's slaves. Jones writes that the Flood estate is being administered by John S. Woodcock, deputy clerk or Northumberland, and James Knott.

Walter Jones was a student at William and Mary with Thomas Jefferson. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an M.D. in 1769. Upon his return to Virginia, he practiced medicine and served in the House of Delegates during the Revolution. He was a delegate to the convention at Annapolis and served in the U.S. Congress from 1797 to 1799.

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