Mar 30, 2023 - Sale 2631

Sale 2631 - Lot 25

Price Realized: $ 2,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) A Texas planter's letter seeking to purchase "dogs . . . to hunt negres." Autograph Letter Signed from Matthew Scobey to Joseph H. Polley. One page, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, plus address leaf (hand-carried with no postal markings); minor wear, address leaf with separations at folds and tape repairs. Bailey's Prairie, TX, 20 November 1851
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

The letter writer Matthew Scobey (1826-1870) can be found in the 1850 census for Brazoria County where Bailey's Prairie is located, as a single farmer worth $2,100. "You was telling me about some dogs belonging to some one in your section that was very good to track negres. I am anxious to now if they can be had. I think you said there was two of them." Scobey is anxious to know whether the dogs would be easily distracted by other targets while on the hunt: "If the gentleman will part with them, I wish you would write to me the qualites of the dogs, whether they will run dear, bear, or other varmonts when hunting negroes &c, also the amount the gentleman asks for them."

Joseph Henry Polley (1795-1869) was one of the first and wealthiest settlers of what is now Wilson County, TX further inland. He owned approximately 20 enslaved people during this period; the Polley Mansion still stands today.