Sale 2471 - Printed & Manuscript African Americana, March 29, 2018

26 27 c   (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Testimony regarding a complicated slave sale in westernVirginia. 4 manuscript pages, 12 1 / 2 x 7 3 / 4 inches, on one folding sheet, signed by Justice of the Peace George R. Evans; folds, minimal wear. Montgomery County, VA, 5 July 1858 [300/400] This testimony describes the complex legal machinations around a slave sale gone wrong. Between the legal- ese, it can be read as yet another example of a family broken up in the name of profit. In Pulaski County, Jacob Shearman agreed to sell all but one of his slaves to Burgess R. Linkous and Edward H. Kinzer. Shearman later sued the two men; offered here is the response by the defendant Linkous. Linkous recalled that Shearman “seemed anxious to sell, but wished to conceal it from the negroes,” and agreed to sell “the old woman & her children, all . . . except Sarah Ann.” After making a down payment, the purchasers “took five of them back to Montgomery with them, leaving the other negroes in Pulaski, except one who was hired to a Mr. Dills in Tazewell. . . . One of the girls had a young child & the others were left to assist in making the crop for the complainant.” They then sold “the old woman & her two children,” but their original owner Shearman “hearing that the negroes were dissatisfied . . . became anxious that Edward H. Kinzer would purchase respondent’s interest in the remaining negroes.” Kinzer then reacquired “the woman & her two children . . . & afterward sold one of them to his brother in law Mr. Carr and two others to his codefendant Adam Wall.” In closing, Linkous “denies that he ever made sale of the negro girl Nancy or the two negroes sold to Wall.” Short version: a family scattered to the winds. 26 c   (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Est ate appra isa l of 26 slaves in Mississippi. 3 manuscript pages, 12 1 / 4 x 7 3 / 4 inches, on 2 leaves plus an integral docket leaf, signed by 3 appraisers and a clerk; minor browning, folds. Jefferson County, MS, 4 May 1857 [500/750] An annual appraisal of the slaves in Jamison Liddell’s estate, in the possession of his widow Martha. The 26 slaves are named with their ages and a few notes on their condition. Sarah, aged 40, was “sickly”; Bill, aged 70, was “very infirm”; George, aged 20, was “runaway.” A family of 6 led by Kelly, an “old man” aged 50 and his pregnant wife Maria, aged 35, was thought to be incapable of much work “more than support the family.” 15-year-old Jane “is so diseased she is worthless.”