(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) FORREST NATHAN BEDFORD Partially pri

Sale 2408 - Lot 74

Price Realized: $ 17,500

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

Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000

QUITE POSSIBLY UNIQUE (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) FORREST, NATHAN BEDFORD. Partially printed, official slave sale receipt, accomplished by hand, acknowledging payment for a sixteen year old girl. Small 8vo, paper evenly toned. signed by nathan bedford forrest. Memphis, TN, 4 April 1860

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an exceedingly rare and quite possibly unique, printed receipt for a 16 year-old female slave, signed by nathan bedford forrest. Forrest (1821-1877), was one of only a handful of Civil War generals to have volunteered as a private and risen to general through the ranks. Before the war Forrest had amassed a large fortune as a planter and slave dealer, worth $1.5 million by his own declaration. He was considered to be a brilliant officer, but his record was sullied by allowing his men to slaughter surrendering black troops, and Southern Union volunteers at the battle of Fort Pillow. Some dispute the massacre, but testimony of survivors as well as a Confederate officer's letter to his wife confirms the savage behavior of the Confederate troops. Forrest is also remembered as one of the founders of the Ku Klux Klan. No other such document recording the purchase of a slave by Forrest is recorded.