(SLAVERY ABOLITION) Payroll for enslaved laborers hired out

Sale 2631 - Lot 67

Price Realized: $ 1,188

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500

(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Payroll for enslaved laborers hired out for Confederate service in Charleston. Partly-printed document, 16 x 12 3/4 inches, signed by several slave owners and military officials; folds, 1 1/2-inch closed tear in upper margin. Charleston, SC, December 1863

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The Union Army's efforts to capture the port of Charleston peaked in 1863: a naval assault on Fort Sumter in April, the Battle of Fort Wagner on 18 July, and the capture of Fort Wagner on 6 September. Enslaved laborers, requisitioned from nearby plantations, played an important role in the defense. Hundreds of them were forced to work on the crumbling Fort Sumter and other harbor fortifications, filling sandbags and repairing walls. This "Pay Roll for Services at Charleston" lists more than 70 slaveowners, the numbers of enslaved laborers they provided, the dates of their service, and the compensation money due to the owners. Only 8 of them signed the form for the receipt of their money, most of them signing by mark. Most owners supplied only one laborer, and none more than six. The list is signed on the second page by Francis D. Lee (1826-1885), a notable Charleston architect who served as a captain and engineer for the Confederacy.

With--another South Carolina Confederate document, a receipt for $1,900 "upon the claim of Joseph R. Ross for compensation for his slave named Stephen, lost by reason of the employment of the said slave by the authorities of the Confederate Government upon the military fortifications in this State." Partially printed document, completed in manuscript, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches. Columbia, SC, undated.