(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) KENTUCKY Christmas Eve emancipation

Sale 2408 - Lot 75

Price Realized: $ 406

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

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) KENTUCKY. Christmas Eve emancipation for David Hickman, the slave of Henry Lee, who posted five hundred dollars for his freedom . . . to be revoked if he could not support himself. Single long folio leaf, written in a bold, cursive hand, Signed with an "X" by Hickman. Kentucky, 24 December 1859

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An unusually cynical and cruel document, the wording of which virtually guarantees the revoking of the slave's Christmas Eve emancipation. The slave David Hickman, unless he had money put aside, would almost certainly wind up homeless and thus a slave once again. While not explicit, it is implicit that Hickman bought his freedom from Lee for $500, probably earned doing odd jobs over a long period of time on his free time.