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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
A bill of sale for an enslaved woman named Margaret who was pregnant at the time of the sale, 1858.

A bill of sale for an enslaved woman named Margaret who was pregnant at the time of the sale, 1858.

Transcript:

State of South-Carolina.

KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, That I

Benjamin D. Lazarus

for and in consideration of the sum of One Thousand Dollars

to me in hand paid, at and before the sealing and delivery of these Presents,

By Francis A. Mitchell

(the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge) have bargained and sold, and by these Presents do bargain, sell and deliver to the said Francis A. Mitchell. A certain female slave named Margaret warranted [[object Object]] and presumed to be in a state of pregnancy

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the said: Slave Margaret with her future issue and increase

unto the said Francis A. Mitchell, his

Executors, Administrators, and Assigns to his and their only proper use and behoof forever. And I the said Benjamin D. Lazarus my Executors and Administrators, the said bargained premises unto the said Francis A. Mitchell, his

Executors, Administrators and Assigns, from and against all persons shall and will WARRANT and FOREVER DEFEND by these Presents.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my Hand and Seal Dated at Charleston on the 14th day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty eight and in the Eighty third year of the Independence of the United States of America.

Sealed and delivered in the presence of Emma Lazarus.

Benj[[object Object]] Lazarus

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Citation Information
“Slave Bill of Sale,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/001325e83bb90d3714679a0edf743b83.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston via South Carolina Digital Library.

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Item 11 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

Previous ItemNext Item
Excerpts from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, under pseudonym Linda Brent, 1861.
Title page from The Deeper Wrong or Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the edition of Jacobs’ work published in London in 1862.
A portrait of Lydia Maria Child, an abolitionist who helped Harriet Jacobs to prepare her narrative for publication.
A runaway slave advertisement placed by Dr. James Norcom, enslaver of Harriet Jacobs, 1830.
“A True Tale of Slavery,” by John S. Jacobs, from The Leisure Hour: A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation, 1861.
A selection of runaway slave advertisements from The American Anti-Slavery Almanac, 1838.
An illustration from The American Anti-Slavery Almanac depicting an enslaved woman separated from her children, 1838.
A photograph showing a formerly enslaved woman named Betty with her great granddaughters, 1867.
A photograph of an enslaved woman named Frances and her enslaver’s young daughter, Sallie Smith, ca. 1860.
A drawing depicting a slave market in Charleston, South Carolina, 1833.
A bill of sale for an enslaved woman named Margaret who was pregnant at the time of the sale, 1858.
A broadside advertising an auction of enslaved men and a woman, 1856.
A carte de visite of Isaac and Rosa, slave children from New Orleans, 1863.
A letter by abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman on stationery with a printed image of an enslaved mother separated from her children, 1839.
A letter from Francis Jackson to Lydia Maria Child about Thomas Sims, who was arrested and re-enslaved under the Fugitive Slave Law, 1860.

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