Receipt for the sale of an enslaved eleven year old boy named John

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

Receipt for the sale of an enslaved boy named John, dated 1856. The document has been handwritten in brown iron gall ink on off-white laid rag paper. The document reads: [Receive of S.G. Boyden / Seven hundred & twelve dollars / & fifty cents for a Negro Boy / about Eleven years of age named John / which Boy I warrant state found in / Body and Mind & no defect in title / also a slave for life. / August 19th 1856]. It is signed [Edmund Honeycutt (seal)] at the bottom right and [Witnyss / HT Lents] at the bottom left. Handwritten on the back of the document is [Bill Sale / E. Honeycutt / Boy John / $712.50].

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