Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 402

Price Realized: $ 531
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(SLAVERY.) John M. Washington. Letter delivered by an enslaved man, concerning his owner's offer to sell him. Autograph Letter Signed as "J.M. Washington" to Colonel J. Hooe of Yorkshire, Prince William County, VA. One page, 7¾ x 4¾ inches, plus integral address leaf with no postal markings , only "By Rich'd"; short separations at folds, offsetting, toning to address panel. [Brentsville, VA], 1 February 1844
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The trustee of a family estate wished to sell an enslaved man named Richard back to the Washington family plantation where his family was held. Richard was made to carry the letter to Mr. Washington himself, giving him the opportunity to plead for Washington to purchase him. Washington replied:

"Rich'd has handed me your note offering him for sale as the trustee of Mary D. Hooe. He has a wife & children at Park Gate, to whom I believe him sincerely attached, & at the same time believing him the servant stated in your note, it will afford me pleasure to meet with you on Monday at Brentsville. I can make no offer at this time."

This ambivalent letter was sent back to the owner by Mr. Washington, again using Richard as the courier. It would appear that Washington did not go ahead with the purchase to reunite Richard with his family. Another document handled by Swann on 28 March 2019, lot 27, shows that Richard was being leased by the Hooe estate to another plantation through 1848.

The letter writer John MacRae Washington (1797-1853) of Park Gate plantation in Brentsville, VA would soon serve as a lieutenant colonel in the Mexican War, and as military governor of New Mexico. His grandfather had been a second cousin of President George Washington.