Mar 30, 2023 - Sale 2631

Sale 2631 - Lot 15

Price Realized: $ 2,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Archive of 14 deeds and receipts for the sale of enslaved people to a Maryland family, plus a manumission. 15 items, various sizes; condition strong except as noted. Baltimore, MD, 1812-1833
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Additional Details

The slave-owner John Berry (1791-1856) was born in Montgomery County, MD, served as a captain during the War of 1812 and as a colonel in the state militia, and owned a brickmaking business in the western part of Baltimore near Franklintown Road. Somewhat unusually, many of these deeds are for enslaved people with delayed manumissions already in place, so the deeds are for a remaining term of service covering a fixed period of time. They include:

Receipt for Berry's purchase of Will from Joseph Blake, 8 June 1812, with a note by Berry adding "I wish to set Jack free on the 16 October 1822."

Receipt for the sale of Bet, aged 10 to W.B. Jackson, 7 April 1813; with Jackson's note on verso "Purchased for & delivered to John Berry of Baltimore." The broker was likely Berry's brother-in-law William B. Jackson.

Deed of "a negro man called Harry" from Elizabeth Dorsey to Berry for "a term of two years and two months," 1 November 1814, docketed "Harry died March 24th 1815."

Deed of "a negro man called Joe" from Elizabeth Dorsey to Berry for "the term of six years and eight months," 1 November 1814.

Receipt for sale of "a mulatto man by the name of Philip" from Margaret Carroll to Samuel Moore, 1 March 1816, with an appended note by Moore selling Philip to Berry, 30 December 1816.

Receipt for the sale of "a Negro man named Peter" from John Winfield to Berry, 9 October 1816, with Berry's note "I wish to set Peter free at the expiration of six years from this date . . . he is about 34 years old. If Peter should make me one hundred dollars over work I intend to let him receive his own wages for the last two years. He is not to have his free papers untill the expiration of six years, but subject at all times to my orders." The docketing names the enslaved man as Peter Carroll.

Deed of "my Negro man Edward, a slave for life" from Mary W. Hesselius to John Hays, 13 November 1816.

Deed of "a Negro man named John Wiggins" from Runyon Harris to Henry Lamson and John Clapp, noting that he had been bought from William B. Sanderson in 1815 for "the term of ten years," 25 October 1816.

Deed of the same John Wiggins from Lamson & Clapp to Christopher Deshon for "the residue of the term of years," 7 January 1819, with an added note selling "the residue of the term of years" to Berry, 20 April 1820.

Deed of "a Negro boy by the name of Guy aged about twenty four years" from Hill Dorsey to Berry, 20 April 1816. The enslaved man is named as Guy Dickerson in the docketing.

Receipt for "Negro man named Jacob" for "the time he has to serve me which I believe to be neare two years and six months" from Benjamin Berry to John Berry, 20 October 1819.

Deed of "a Negro man named John" from Richard H. Merriken to Berry through July 1832 "according to the tenor of a manumission executed by John Hesselius" in July 1801, dated 6 July 1820. With Berry's description of another servant on verso: "Description: Slender maid, about 5 feet 7 in high, thin vissage, down look when spoken to, easy manners."

Deed of "a Negro man named Isaac Smith" from William P. Patterson to Berry, 17 November 1827, with edits in pencil to draft another deed for a boy named Isaac aged 9 to John B. Berry "untill the 1st day of July 1860."

Deed for "a male servant aged eighteen years on the first day of last July named Charles, to serve until he shall be twenty-eight years old; and a male servant aged sixteen years on the day aforesaid named Israel, to serve until he shall be twenty-eight years old," freed by the terms of the will of Job Smith, sold by executor James McCullogh to Berry, 28 May 1833; separations at folds.

Manumission of "my Negro girl named Caroline, aged about fifteen years, hereby declaring her from and after the expiration of ten years from the day of the date hereof, to be absolutely free. . . . Any issue the said Caroline may have, with their descendants, during her term of servitude aforesaid, shall be free at the age of twenty four years." Signed by Berry and two witnesses, 20 January 1832. In other words, this "manumission" reserved the possibility of enslaving her future grandchildren through 1866.

WITH--other family papers and ephemera of John Berry and family members through great-grandson Tilghman Vickers Morgan (1898-1949), 65 items dated 1794-1949. Most notable are two indentures for young boys apprenticed to be brickmakers through the age of 21, dated 1816; and an undated description of a man, quite possibly prepared for a runaway advertisement: "Two small scars over his left eye . . . he has a small scar on the right side of his nose, he has a large nose and underlip. He is a dark mallatto or brown, down look when spoken two, a small scar between the joint of the thumb and fore finger on the right hand, appears to be a burn."