(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) Testimony regarding a complicated sl

Sale 2471 - Lot 27

Price Realized: $ 594

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

Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400

(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Testimony regarding a complicated slave sale in western Virginia. 4 manuscript pages, 12 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches, on one folding sheet, signed by Justice of the Peace George R. Evans; folds, minimal wear. Montgomery County, VA, 5 July 1858

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This testimony describes the complex legal machinations around a slave sale gone wrong. Between the legalese, it can be read as yet another example of a family broken up in the name of profit. In Pulaski County, Jacob Shearman agreed to sell all but one of his slaves to Burgess R. Linkous and Edward H. Kinzer. Shearman later sued the two men; offered here is the response by the defendant Linkous. Linkous recalled that Shearman "seemed anxious to sell, but wished to conceal it from the negroes," and agreed to sell "the old woman & her children, all . . . except Sarah Ann." After making a down payment, the purchasers "took five of them back to Montgomery with them, leaving the other negroes in Pulaski, except one who was hired to a Mr. Dills in Tazewell. . . . One of the girls had a young child & the others were left to assist in making the crop for the complainant." They then sold "the old woman & her two children," but their original owner Shearman "hearing that the negroes were dissatisfied . . . became anxious that Edward H. Kinzer would purchase respondent's interest in the remaining negroes." Kinzer then reacquired "the woman & her two children . . . & afterward sold one of them to his brother in law Mr. Carr and two others to his codefendant Adam Wall." In closing, Linkous "denies that he ever made sale of the negro girl Nancy or the two negroes sold to Wall." Short version: a family scattered to the winds.