(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) Gibbs Robert W Jr Certificate on the

Sale 2503 - Lot 83

Price Realized: $ 688

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

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Gibbs, Robert W., Jr. Certificate on the death of a slave who died on South Carolina state service. Document Signed, 8 x 8 inches; minor wear on top edge, inked smudged in spots. Columbia, SC, 28 January 1863

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An enslaved man was requisitioned by the state of South Carolina for work on the coastal defenses, where he contracted typhoid fever and was sent home to die. This certificate was drawn up by a doctor so the owner could be reimbursed by the state for the loss. "We certify that Bob, a slave belonging to Edward Kinsler, arrived in this city on the evening of the 23rd ultimo extremely ill with typhoid pneumonia, and that he died on the night of the 25th ultimo from the same disease, which must have been contracted at least a week before his arrival here, and during the time that he was at work on the coast in the service of the military. . . . He was a likely & intelligent negro, apparently 23 or 24 yrs of age." In a world where the enslaved would not get a death certificate or an obituary or a gravestone, this certificate is likely the only memorial Bob ever received.