Mar 24, 2022 - Sale 2598

Sale 2598 - Lot 28

Price Realized: $ 3,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) "Sheriff's Sale" auction handbill for property including "5 negroes," in Mark Twain's hometown. Partly printed document signed by Deputy Sheriff J.L. Hatt, 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches; minimal wear. Marion County, MO, 30 October 1841
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Additional Details

The sheriff announces that by a court order "in favor of sundry plaintiffs" he has seized the property of William M. Collins as listed, including "5 negroes, to wit, Henery aged about 21 years, Abram 14 years, Eliot 13 years, Marey 19 years, Sharlot 10 years," all to be sold "to the highest bidder, for ready money" at Hannibal, Missouri.

Hannibal was a boom town, where a recently completed railroad terminated on the banks of the Mississippi across from Illinois. It later became best known as the hometown of a small boy named Samuel Clemens who moved to town with his father in 1839, and later gained fame as Mark Twain. His experience growing up among the enslaved people of Hannibal informed the character of Jim in Huckleberry Finn.