A rare 1856 letter from W. E. Boyd to John G. Johnson regarding the seven hundred and fifty dollar ($750) purchase of a fourteen-year-old negro girl named Harriet.
This rare slavery document is a letter from 1834 between W. Ward and Cornelius Beazley regarding the debt due in return for the lending of their slaves' labor.
B. W. Taylor’s Estate Papers included a legal document that authorized the seizure and sale of an enslaved person to satisfy a debt or court judgment known as a Writ of Execution. This rare record illustrates the legal system’s role in treating enslaved individuals as property through the intersection of slavery and financial transactions.
A letter from William H. Seward, Secretary of State, presents a resolution proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to extend voting rights to people of color. The letter includes excerpts from the Governor of Tallahassee and references Article XV, advocating for equal voting rights for all citizens.
This document offers an inventory of the personal property belonging to the estate of John P. Duval. It contains a list of names of enslaved people and their prices.
In this 1844 correspondence, Bennett Dell requests the return of enslaved individuals from General W. G. Worthe. The letter reflects the legal and personal disputes over enslaved people, who were considered property under the law. This document highlights the control and commodification of Black lives in pre-Civil War Southern society.
