Virginia General Court order on appeal in Brown vs. Brown, 1761 April 25
Slavery -- Virginia -- Loudoun County
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
Virginia. General Court
Waller, Benjamin, 1716-1786
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1761
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MS 2000.33
Deed of manumission of enslaved woman, Sall Black, 1791 March 31
Black, Sall
Butterworth, Benjamin, 1736-1801
Quakers -- Virginia -- Campbell County
Slaves -- Emancipation -- Virginia -- Campbell County
Deed of emancipation for Sall Black dated March 31, 1791. By this deed, Benjamin Butterworth recorded his intention to free the enslaved woman, Sall Black, when she attained the age of 18 years. Butterworth, a Virginia Quaker, was able to free his slaves under the provisions of a manumission act passed by the Virginia legislature in 1782. The deed was recorded by the Campbell County court and affirmed by fellow Quakers Micajah Davis and William Davis and by Christopher Johnson. Robert Alexander signed the deed as clerk of the court.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1791
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MS 2001.20
Deed of manumission for Josiah Cathon's enslaved persons, 1793 February 2
Cathon, Josiah West
Quakers -- Virginia -- Southampton County
Slaves -- Emancipation -- Virginia -- Southampton County
Deed of emancipation for the slaves of Josiah West Cathon of Southampton County, Virginia dated February 2, 1793. By this deed, Cathon freed 5 slaves, two of whom were minors. Cathon intended to serve as guardian for the minors until they turned 18. Cathon was able to free his slaves under the provisions of a manumission act passed by the Virginia legislature in 1782. The deed was recorded by the Southampton court and proved by Lemuel Eley and John Rawls "people call'd Quakers." Samuel Kello signed the deed as clerk of the court.
Cathon, Josiah West
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1793
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MS 2001.21
Brig Othello's People, Augt 1772
Othello (Brig)
Slave ships
Slave trade -- Africa
Slave trade -- Rhode Island
Slave trade -- Virginia
Manuscript account of items and money issued to the crew of the brig <em>Othello</em>. The <em>Othello</em> 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 <a href="http://slavevoyages.org/tast/database/search.faces?yearFrom=1514&yearTo=1866&shipname=othello&ptdepimp=20000&anycaptain=john+duncan&yearam=1773">The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database</a>. Correspondence concerning this voyage may be found in Donnan, Elizabeth, ed. <em>Documents illustrative of the slave trade to America</em>. Vol. 3. New York: Octagon Books, 1969.
Othello (Brig)
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1772-1774
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MS 2000.3
Deed of James Lyon with John Eyre for sixteen slaves, 1809 November 21
Eyre, John, 1768-1855
Lyon, James, 1757-1811
African Americans--Virginia--Northampton County
Slaves--Virginia--Northampton County
Deeds--Virginia--Northampton County--19th century
James Lyon, a physician in Northampton County, Virginia, was married to Sarah Eyre, the sister of John Eyre. The deed between James Lyon and John Eyre is for the transfer of sixteen slaves to Eyre as security for seventeen hundred dollars received by Lyon of Eyre. The deed stipulates that Lyon or his heirs have until November 21, 1811, two years from the date of the deed, to repay the seventeen hundred dollars. The deed further stipulates that the slaves may be sold by Eyre if the money is not paid in time. The proceeds of the sale to satisfy the debt and costs incurred by Eyre with the residue of the sale going to Lyon or his heirs. The deed was proved at the court in Northampton County on December 9th, 1811 following the death of Lyon in November of that year. The sixteen slaves are all named in the deed.
Lyon, James, 1757-1811
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1809
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MS 2008.9
John Tadlock bill of sale for a slave girl, 1795 August 1
African American girls -- Virginia
Women slaves -- Virginia
Bill of sale between John Tadlock and James McMurtry for the sale of "one Negro Girl Name Dice about Sixteen years old ..." for the consideration of "Eighty pounds Virginia Money ..." Witnessed by William Neilson and Samuel McKenny.
Tadlock, John
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1795
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MS 2009.6
A Letter from the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, to the Inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South-Carolina
Slave holders -- Southern States
Slavery -- Southern States
Slaves -- Religious life -- Southern States
Southern States -- Religious life and customs
In this open letter to the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas, George Whitefield criticizes the slave owners for their mistreatment of slaves within those colonies. Whitefield notes that slave masters tend to treat their animals better than their slaves. He writes "my blood has frequently almost run cold within me, to consider how many of your Slaves had neither convenient Food to eat or proper Raiment to put on, notwithstanding most of the Comforts you enjoy were solely owing to their indefatigable Labours." Whitefield believes the prayers of the slaves will be heard and "The blood of them spilt for these many Years in your respective Provinces, will ascend up to Heaven against you." Whitefield's main concern, however, is for the souls of the enslaved. He believes the slave owners purposely keep their slaves ignorant of Christianity, a crime far worse than the physical degradation the slaves are made to endure. The controversy created by this letter led some to blame Whitefield for the Stono Uprising of 1739.
Whitefield, George, 1714-1770.
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790, printer.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1740
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Appraisement of that part of the negroes and personal Estate of the Late Doctor Pasteur which is in Williamsburg
Pasteur, William, -1791 -- Estate
Probate records -- Virginia -- Williamsburg
Slaves -- Virginia -- Williamsburg
African Americans -- Virginia -- Williamsburg
Personal property -- Virginia -- Williamsburg
Wills -- Virginia -- Williamsburg
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
Virginia. Hustings Court (Williamsburg)
Maupin, Gabriel, 1737-1800
Wood, James, 1741-1813
Pearson, Matt, active 1791
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1791
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MS 2007.1
Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship
Slave ships -- Pictorial works
Slave insurrections -- Pictorial works
Slave trade -- Pictorial works
<p>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 <em>An Essay on colonization...</em> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1794
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SCRB10197
Will of Deborah Morris, 1793
Morris, Deborah, 1724-1793 -- Will
Free African School (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Pennsylvania Hospital (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Philadelphia Dispensary
Quakers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
Women -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
Wills -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- 1793
<p>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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Deborah Morris was the daughter of wealthy Philadelphian Anthony Morris. A Quaker, she was noted for her piety, individuality and eccentricity.</p>
Morris, Deborah, 1724-1793
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
ca. 1793
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MS 2009.7
Injured humanity ; being a representation of what the unhappy children of Africa endure from those who call themselves Christians
Slavery -- West Indies, British
Slaves -- West Indies, British -- Social conditions
<p>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 <em>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</em> to refute the arguments of pro-slavery apologists who "extol a state of servitude as a happy asylum ..."</p>
<p>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 <em>The mirror of misery, or, Tyranny exposed</em> first issued by Wood in 1807.</p>
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
ca. 1805-1808
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MS 2011.5
The sorrows of Yamba : or, The Negro woman's lamentation
Slave trade -- Africa
Slavery -- Poetry
Slavery -- St. Lucia -- Poetry
Women slaves -- St. Lucia -- Poetry
An antislavery poem sometimes attributed to Hannah Moore (1745-1833), who may have derived it from William Cowper's "The Negro's Complaint." This broadside is printed in three columns within an overall decorative border; the columns separated by decorative rules. Above the second column there is a woodcut of a white man (the English missionary in the poem) leading an African woman away from the shore. The woman's body is turned toward the water where she was intending to drown herself to escape enslavement. There is a fort with cannon and palm trees to the left of the pair suggesting a location in the West Indies (the St. Lucie [St. Lucia] of the poem). The poem describes Yamba's conversion and ends with a condemnation of "ye British Sons of Murder" who are engaged in the slave trade.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1795
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MS 2009.5
Prize goods examined
Antislavery movements -- England
Slave trade -- Africa
Slave trade -- Great Britain
Slave trade -- West Indies, British
Slavery -- West Indies, British
British anti-slavery broadsheet denouncing the slave trade to the West Indies. The writer calls the enslaved and everything taken from them prize goods. The writer states that those who buy the products slave labor are complicit in the slave trade and the institution of slavery.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
ca. 1807
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MS 2012.21
Third Congress of the United States: at the first session, begun and held at the city of Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania, on Monday, the second of December, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three. An act to prohibit the carrying on the slave-trade from the United States to any foreign place or country
Slave trade -- United States
United States. Congress (3rd, 1st session : 1793-1794)
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1794
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MS 2009.3
Meltiah Green letter to William E. Green, 1801 November 10
Green, Meltiah, 1779-1809 -- Correspondence
Green, William E. -- Correspondence
Plantation life -- United States Virgin Islands -- Saint Thomas
Slave trade -- United States
Slave trade -- United States Virgin Islands -- Saint Thomas
Slavery -- United States Virgin Island -- Saint Thomas
Muslims -- United States Virgin Islands -- Saint Thomas
Slaves -- Medical care -- United States Virgin Islands -- Saint Thomas
Saint Thomas (United States Virgin Islands) -- Description and travel
African Americans -- Education -- Pennsylvania -- Bethlehem
Letter from Meltiah Green, St. Thomas, November 10, 1801 to his brother William E. Green, Worcester, Massachusetts. Green describes St. Thomas giving particular attention to the trees and Black Beard's Castle. He discusses the treatment of slaves including their medical care and the religious practice of an enslaved Muslim who refused to be Christianized. Green explains how Americans in St. Thomas circumvent American laws against the slave trade by having foreigners register their ships and flying them under the Danish flag. Green also relates to his brother how slave women are sexually exploited by their white masters. He writes about the case of one such woman who "was four years at the famus school at Bethleham in Pensylvania ..." While Green deplored the treatment of slaves by their masters, he wasn't moved to action. About consuming the products of slave labor Green wrote "I am sure was it not that I should be thought singular I would never taist sugar or rum more as it is the very Blood of the Africans ..."
Green, Meltiah, 1779-1809
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1801
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MS 2010.11
Walter Jones letter to Robert Carter, III, 1776 November 9
Carter, Robert, 1728-1804 -- Correpondence
Jones, Walter, 1745-1815 -- Correspondence
Flood, William, -approximately 1775 -- Estate
Physicians -- Virginia -- Correspondence
Slaves -- Diseases -- Virginia
Smallpox -- Virginia
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
Jones, Walter, 1745-1815
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1776
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MS 2010.3
Indictment of slave Amy, 1751
Amy
Holt, James, -1779
Willoughby, John -1776
African American women -- Virginia -- Norfolk County
Theft -- Virginia -- Norfolk County
Women slaves -- Virginia -- Norfolk County
Indictments (legal documents) -- Virginia -- Norfolk County -- 18th century
Indictment in the hand of James Nimmo, King's Attorney for Norfolk County addressed to the justices of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. In the document Nimmo relates how "Amy a negro woman Slave belonging to Mr. Jas. Holt of the County of Norfolk the fear of God not having before her Eyes but being seduced and instigated by the Devil ..." entered the home of John Willoughby and stole his goods and chattels. Docketed on the verso: "King vs. Negro."
Nimmo, James, -1753
Virginia. Court of Oyer and Terminer (Norfolk County)
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1751
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MS 2010.2
Richard Jackman promissory note, 1783 December 13
Slaves -- Virginia
Promissory notes -- Virginia -- 18th century
Promissory note of Richard Jackman of Lincoln County, Virginia dated December 13, 1783. Jackman promises to pay Richard Steel of Lincoln County "one hundred and forty pound Currant and Lawfull money of Virginia ..." Alternatively, Jackman could settle the debt by delivering unto Richard Steel "a likely Negro slave not under the age of fifteen years nor over the age of twenty five ..." Signed by Jackman with an encircled seal after his name. Witnessed by Isaac Wilcox and Thomas Smith. Steel has docketed the verso and signed over the rights of the debt to a Robert Patterson. This is witnessed by Andw. Armstrong and Alex. McConnall
Jackman, Richard
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1783
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MS 2009.4
Bond of Louisa Ross with the Common Council of Alexandria, Virginia, 1822 May 9
Free African Americans--Virginia--Alexandria
Free African Americans--Legal status, laws, etc.--Virginia--Alexandria.
Bond of Louisa Ross and Davis Bowie with the Common Council of Alexandria. The bond was required pursuant to an act of the council regarding slaves, free negroes, and mulattoes. This law required free negroes and mulattoes to post bond with good and sufficient security for fifty dollars to guarantee their "good, peaceable, and honest conduct, during their residence" in Alexandria. The bond was meant to guarantee the good behaviour of Louisa Ross.
Ross, Louisa
Davis, Bowie
Alexandria (Va.). Common Council
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1822
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MS 2008.12
James Rush letter to John Mason, George Town, 1800 November 10
Prosser, Gabriel, approximately 1775-1800.
Mason, John, 1766-1849 -- Correspondence
Virginia. Militia
Slave insurrections -- Virginia
Writing one month after the execution of Gabriel, Rush discusses the disturbances caused by the slave patrols in the wake of Gabriel's rebellion. Rush notes that Governor Monroe has called for militia patrols of the various quarters to look for any "improper assemblage of Blacks." The militia were to bring such blacks before a magistrate or the commanding officer. Rush feared this power would be abused.
Rush, James
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
1800
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MS 2008.13