University of Chicago Library

Guide to the Slavery in North America Collection 1752-1864

Descriptive Summary

Title:	Slavery in North America Collection
Dates:	1752-1864
Size:	0.25 linear feet (1 box)
Repository:	Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.
Abstract:	The collection is comprised of various documents and letters from many sources which document slavery and the treatment of enslaved persons in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century, primarily in the United States. Documents include several bills of sale, a memorandum describing the slave trade in Havana (1783), estate inventories, public notices, letters, deeds, a will, and an indemnity bond. A few of the documents are facsimiles. Although acquired by the University Library from diverse sources they have been gathered into a collection as a matter of convenience.

Information on Use

Access

The collection is open for research.

Digital Images

Original documents, texts, and images represented by digital images linked to this finding aid are subject to U. S. copyright law. It is the user's sole responsibility to secure any necessary copyright permission to reproduce or publish documents, texts, and images from any holders of rights in the original materials.

The University of Chicago Library, in its capacity as owner of the physical property represented by the digital images linked to this finding aid, encourages the use of these materials for educational and scholarly purposes. Any reproduction or publication from these digital images requires that the following credit line be included: Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

The images presented here may include materials reflecting the attitudes, language, and stereotypes of an earlier time period. These materials are presented as historical resources in support of study and research. Inclusion of such materials does not constitute an endorsement of their content by the University of Chicago.

The University of Chicago Library appreciates hearing from anyone who may have information about any of the images in this collection.

Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Slavery in North America Collection, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Historical Note

The enslavement of persons, primarily brought involuntarily from Africa, to perform forced labor in the United States started when the future states were colonies of Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Spain. By the end of the Seventeenth Century many colonies had passed legislation legalizing slavery, many of them specifying "Africans" or "Negroes" as the enslaved persons. The earliest document in this collection, from 1752, dates from the time when Virginia, the place where the document was likely drafted, was a British colony.

The practice of enslaving people continued through the American Revolution. After the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolutionary War in September 1783, business owners and farmers in the newly decolonized United States looked for ways to start or re-start their businesses and livelihoods after eight years of war. A document from this collection demonstrates how the buying and selling of human beings was regarded as a type of business or mercantile trade. Many farmers and managers of large-scale agricultural operations used slave labor in their businesses, especially in plantation economies. As the population and economy of the United States grew, the use of forced labor by enslaved persons grew as well.

By the beginning of the Nineteenth-Century, some northern states had taken steps toward the abolition of slavery in those states and by 1808 all states except South Carolina had officially (though not necessarily in practice) banned the import of slaves. Slavery continued and grew through domestic slave trade, especially in New Orleans which, though part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, did not become a state until 1812.

The enslavement of people grew in significance as an issue that divided the early states. As activists and politicians in northern states nurtured abolitionist movements and advocated federal protections from enslavement, business people and farmers, often in the mid-Atlantic and southern states, engaged in business and economic models which relied more and more on the forced labor of enslaved persons. Starting in February 1861 the states split along ideological and geographical lines and the Confederate States of America (1861-1865) was formed. Several of the documents in this collection were created in the Confederacy.

In April of 1861 the American Civil War between the United States and Confederate states started. Lasting just over four years, the Civil War (1861-1865) ended as officials of the Confederacy, starting with General Lee in Virginia, surrendered to the Union forces of the United States. During the Civil War the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, issued the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 with the intent to free all enslaved persons in the Confederacy. This was followed by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of January 1865 which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude. After the surrender of the Confederate states, slavery was universally prohibited in the reunited nation.

Scope Note

The documents in this collection cover the period 1752 to 1864. All the documents are handwritten in English with the exception of one bill of sale from New Orleans which is handwritten in French and a public notice from New Orleans with parallel text written in French and English. Kentucky, South Carolina, and New Orleans appear more frequently but other states present in the collection include New York, Alabama, Maryland, and Virginia. Location could not be assigned to a few documents in the collection.

The majority of documents, specifically the bills of sale, “deeds of inventory,” and a number from the miscellaneous section, are in the hand of a clerk, who has himself signed the document on behalf of the person concerned. On the reverse side of many of the documents are acknowledgements of the transactions, or similar clerical notes, such as the information that the document was recorded in the local County Court.

The recurrence of certain names, such as that of Gideon Evans, in the documents from South Carolina, indicates that these documents probably came to the Library together. Most of the documents from New Orleans appear to be from the notary office of Antoine Doriocourt. An interesting detail in some of these documents is that the word “United” in the “United States of America” has been marked out and the word “Confederate” has been penned in to read “Confederate States of America”. Other details in the document headings have been altered accordingly.

These materials were part of a previous collection “Slavery and Indentured Servitude.”

Related Resources

Browse finding aids by topic.

Indentured Persons Collection

Illinois State Library: Lincoln and Lincoln-Related Documents

Mariners’ Museum (Newport News, Virginia): Records of Stewart, Nesbitt, and Company

Subject Headings

Confederate States of America
Slavery-United States--History
Slaves-United States--History
Bills of sale
Estates (Law)
Slavery-Cuba-Havana-History
Freedmen
Slave auctions
Slave bills of sale
Fugitive slaves--United States
Slave trade--United States
Women slaves
Child slaves
Slave records
Slaves--Emancipation--United States
Slaveholders

INVENTORY

Box 1 Folder 1

Memorandum from James Seagrove to Messrs. Alexander & Co. [of Philadelphia] March 3, 1783: Report to the managers of Stewart, Nesbitt, & Co. of Philadelphia describing the state of the slave trade in Havana, Cuba, and urging the company to take part in it, autograph letter, signed, 4 pages