Lot 1104
1845-64 a fascinating correspondence of 42 letters, some with original envelopes postally used, dealing with the sale of slaves (all but four have direct references), mainly to Messrs. Dickinson Hill & Co. in Richmond during the early to mid fifties providing a detailed insight to the slave trade in the U.S.A. just prior to its extinction, commencing "I have sent you a Girl out of a fine family of servants… age about 10 years which having no use for her I wish you to sell to the highest bidder for cash…", letter asking for an independent valuation for a female slave from a man who was cheated by another trader who purportedly sold him a healthy female who actually "was disease and very badly with a fall and Enlargement of the woom at the time I bought her…" still thriving in 1856, R.H. Dickinson wrote from Columbus, Georgia, that he had sold all but six of his Negroes, "The condition of this country is good. Planters with money and out of debt, they want to buy negroes but can't induce themselves to think that negro men ought to sell for over 1000 to 1100 & women 800 to 900…" much day to day information about the running of the business and auctions - credit requests, concerns about the market (waiting for improvement before selling) and having sold Negroes below the owner's limit (reserve price) instructions for the sale of Negroes, and condition reports, which, crudely stated were standard practices for any business selling commodities on commission. The 1865 (Feb. 16) Affidavit with deposition concerns losses of slaves, food, and livestock to the Union Army between 1863-64: "June 1863 the said slave absconded… went into the lines of the U.S. Army … May 1864 whilst a force of the United States Army was poking through the county… carried away with them the said slave… June 1864 another force of the United States Army under the command of the General Philip Sheridan also came to the house of this affiant camped on his premises and carried away with the said slave…" The docketing on the affidavit refers to this as "the act of the Public Enemy." A unique and enlightening archive.
Estimate 2,000 - 3,000
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| Realized $1,900 |
