Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 413

Price Realized: $ 750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(SLAVERY.) Ann Gist. Deathbed letter discussing the manumission of her enslaved people. Autograph Letter Signed to W.P. Gadberry. One page, 9¾ x 7¾ inches, plus integral blank docketed "The paper said to be the last will of Mrs. Ann Gist"; mailing folds, repaired seal tear, minor wear. With typed transcript. "Cottage" [Union, SC], 21 February 1820
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The author of this letter, Ann Stewart Tonge Gist (1780-1820), was a Quaker woman. Her second husband Col. Francis Gist had died in January 1819, leaving her a substantial estate. She was apparently making plans to marry a third time when a fatal bout of typhus befell her. She died two weeks after writing this letter. See Dorsey, "Christopher Gist of Maryland and Some of his Descendants," page 124. In part:

"You know that if I die, that you are to have all my property. . . . I want you to free Rose & Jack, & Ralph & Elsy to work for them one year, and then you must take them, and the rest of my Negroes (except Tony, who must be freed, and give him two hundred dollars). . . . I feel very sick this evening and want you to come over the first opportunity or on Saturday to write these items into my will. . . . I remain your affectionate and intended wife, Ann Gist."

Her stepson William Henry Gist (1807-1874) built Rose Hill Plantation on the family land. He was governor of South Carolina from 1858 to 1860 and a leader of the secession movement.