Search

This collection consists of two large manuscript volumes of tax records for Amherst, Virginia from 1819 to 1820, bound in leather. These ledger's identify enslavers and taxes paid for unnamed enslaved laborers among other things. Each volume lists hundreds of taxpayer names on the left side with comments about payments on the right. An alphabetical index in the front of each volume lists the page on which each name appears on the page in the volume, referring to tax transactions. The amount of tax is itemized for each taxpayer's land, enslaved laborers, horses, "muster fines," and levies. Volume one documents 1819 and contains 26 unnumbered pages and 271 utilized pages. Volume two documents 1820 and contains 23 unnumbered pagesand 224 utilized pages. Front endpaper indicates the records were compiled by George Holloway of Amherst for 1819 and his name is found on the end papers for 1820.

The papers of Anna Maria (Campbell Hickman) Otis Mead Chalmers (1809-1891) and her family offer a deep look into a 19th century American family with a sharp focus on enslaved and formerly enslaved persons. The collection documents the life of a young, widowed woman, Anna Maria Mead Chalmers, who was the granddaughter of General William Hull (1753-1825). She was a mother of four children and became a businesswoman in Richmond, Virginia. She was a writer, an editor of the Southern Churchmen, an educator and founder of Mrs. Mead's School for Young Ladies, and a director of The Southern Churchmen Cot ("Retreat for the Sick"), a hospital for children. Anna Maria's family enslaved people who are represented in the papers including Othello "Tillo" Freeman (1790's-1860's?). It includes a letter from William written in [1875], who was their carriage driver, and letters about Sam the fiddler, who settled on the farm after escaping harsher enslavement in Louisianna, and Jordan who was described as being hired out in a letter dated September 8, 1841 from Thomas R. Blair.

This collection contains a single letter from Colonel Archibald McClean to Pennsylvania Congressman Honorable Francis James, dated February 16, 1842. McClean, a well-connected Virginia lawyer, expresses his support for the anti-slavery efforts of John Quincy Adams. McClean notes his interest in "the debate which has been going on for some time in your House [of Representatives] upon the resolution for censuring Mr. [John Quincy] Adams for presenting a petition which was unpalatable to at least a portion of the members." The Gag Rule of 1840 silenced Adams's opposition to slavery. McClean praised Adams in the letter and voiced his belief that Adams would ultimately prevail against the gag rule. McClean also discusses the Southerners in Congress who opposed Adams and their hypocritical posture toward the enslaved and America's failure to agree with England on a reciprocal right to search each other's vessels to suppress the slave trade, as England had already abolished slavery in 1833. McClean also requests a copy of John Quincy Adams speech on Amistad.

This collection consists of a family journal kept by the Goodman and Farrow families of Albemarle county. The journal includes five pages labeled "Black register of births" recording the first names and birth dates of more than 49 enslaved people. Also included are handwritten recipes, a few draft letters, and ancestral information.

This collection contains a two-page letter written by John Kendal, a partially freed Black man from Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, to his former enslaver, Thomas Watters. Watters was a British trader from Kendal in Cumbria who worked in the West Indies. Also included is a transcription of the letter provided by the dealer.

This collection, containing an account book of William Massie's, lists personal and family expense items, as well as the names of enslaved persons.