Mar 01, 2012 - Sale 2271

Sale 2271 - Lot 10

Price Realized: $ 450
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) MURDER. Manuscript warrant for the arrest of a Negro man slave by the name of David for "feloniously poisoning" Sarah Ragsdale, wife of Lewis Ragsdale. Single leaf of 8vo paper, written on one side and docketed on the reverse. Halifax County [VA], 1802
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A warrant, possibly meant to be made into a poster or newspaper advertisement, hinting at a dark and convoluted story. Lewis Ragsdale came before Justice of the Peace William Faulkner of Halifax County, Virginia who wrote "that a Negro man slave, the property of the estate of George Isbell diseased, by the name of David, has feloniously poisoned Sarah Ragsdale, the wife of the said Lewis Ragsdale." Faulkner orders that David be apprehended and "brought before me or some other Justice of the Peace for the said county." What is interesting is that the Isbells and Ragsdales were in-laws, and in his 1794 will George Isbell left money to buy a slave for his wife Sarah. It is quite likely that David was in fact the slave purchased in 1794 or '95. Sarah then married Lewis Ragsdale and brought David along. It is intriguing to ponder, what could have caused David the slave to poison his mistress? According to the Halifax County records, Sarah and Lewis named their first child George Isbell Ragsdale.