Item 39: Land, Building and Slave Appraisal (Removed to Black Box #1), no date

Item — Box: 12, Folder: 39

Staff Only

Land, Building and Slave Appraisal (Removed to Black Box #1), no date

Dates

Created: no date

Disclaimer for Name and Subject Authorities

Some of the name and subject authority tags have been assigned by educated guessing and estimation of persons and subjects by region, age, profession, and familial relationships. They have been thoroughly researched by using primary and secondary sources available digitally, and named in each description, or in some cases linked directly to the person tag.

Access:

All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.

Extent

1 items

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Type of Material:

Appraisal/Financial Ledger,

Condition Note:

Good: Slight discoloration of document from over time (specifically darker along where folded); wear along all edges, with slight tearing along these edges as well, most notable in bottom right quadrant; little smudging of ink on both the top and bottom of the front of the page.

Measurements:

9 1/16 in. x 14 9/16 in.

Description:

The following document that appears to be a page removed from a ledger that would have included more information on enslaved persons. This single page document [not dated] is a list of male and female Creole children and their supposed worth. This is not an uncommon document from this period, as later in the nineteenth century, enslavers kept books of all expenses and valuations of their enslaved persons. (e.g., William James Smith’s ledger dated 1844-1854). There is a note on the back discussing the valuation of all the enslaved children, amounting to $773,428 in Guilders.

Location:

Washington Estate

Transcription:

Front Page:

Amount of Land Buildings + Brought Forward ….. 477,688

Boys Creoles vir. Girls Amot of Negroes [brought forward] $280,040 Amot of Negroes [brought forward] $286,690 Billy 600 1. Betty 1000 William 700 2. Lucie 800 Scipio 600 3. Kitty 700 Toby 600 4. Judy 600 Christmas 500 5. Queen yours 500 Sam 450 6. Margarett 500 Simon 400 7. Fanny 450 Hmas, Morn 400 8. Pemba 350 Sancho 300 9. Jinny 350 Prince 300 10. Princess 350 Ben. wade 250 11. Betsy 250 George 250 12. Nancy 250 Lewis 250 13. Mary 250 Manuel 250 14. Cordelia 250 Tommy 200 15. Sylvia 250 Dublin 150 16. Present 250 Pompey 150 17. Juliet 250 Washington 150 18. Susan yours 250 Mercury 50 19. Sally lame 200 Ocean 50 20. Venus yours 200 Hamlet 50 21. Kitty little 200 carried forward $286690 22. Mary Ann 200 23. Phobe[Phoebe] 150 24. Cleopatra 150 25. Susannah 150 26. Amelia 100 27. Ann 100 $295,740

Recapitulation Amount of Land Buildings Stock as......................................................$477,688 Negroe Men 136 do. Boys 10 do. women 88 Creole children 48 -------------------------- Total number 282 of Negroes valued at…………………………………$295,740 ------------------------------ $773,428

Back Page:

Berbice September

We the underwritten, at the request of John Douglas Esq. have valued and appraised the land, buildings, Negroes and Stock on Washington Estate, in the Colony aforesaid, and have set opposite to each article what we think it’s just and true value, according to the best of our skill and Judgement, finding the whole (errors of Calculation and addition excepted) to amount to the sum of Seven hundred and seventy three thousand four hundred & twenty eight Guilders Holland’s Currency.