Selling South Carolina Slaves with a Pre-Printed Form

[Slavery]: [South Carolina]: [Geddes, Gilbert C.]:

[Partially-Printed Document, Completed in Manuscript, Regarding the Sale of Five Named Slaves from an Antebellum South Carolina Estate].

Charleston, SC: Printed by Walker & Burke, February 7, 1850. Partially-printed document, completed in manuscript, 13 x 8 inches. Old folds, minor toning and offsetting. Very good. Item #12963

A very rare pre-printed form from antebellum South Carolina, designed specifically for documenting the sale of slaves in Charleston in the mid-19th century. The document emanates from the Court of Equity, and directs the estate of Gilbert C. Geddes to sell five named slaves to James Hopkinson for $2,075. The names of the slaves are Sam, Nelly, Daphne, Simon, and Jenny. The document is signed by James W. Gray, Master in Equity in the case of "Bank of the State of South Carolina vs. the Executrix of Gilbert C. Geddes, et al" and by William E. Seabrook as witness. Gray adds a particularly insidious note near the bottom of the document when he writes that Hopkinson is entitled to "have and hold" the aforementioned five slaves, "together with the future issue and increase of the females." Geddes (1806-1848), a wealthy Charleston resident, owned more than a hundred enslaved people when he died; his father, John Geddes served as governor of South Carolina, 1818-1820. This is the first example of this document we have seen, and a unique record of the transference of five slaves, and particularly interesting for granting the new slaveowner the rights to future slave children..

Price: $950