Letter concerning shipment of enslaved people from Maryland to Mississippi

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.

Letter from Samuel Handy in Snow Hill, Maryland to Rev. James Smylie regarding the potential for the latter to purchase enslaved persons for removal to Natchez, Mississippi. Letter is black ink on folded paper; paper was folded into its own envelope and has remnants of a broken wax seal. Letter is addressed to Smylie "at Mrs MCullock's / No 214 Spruce St / Philada," where he stayed while visiting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the letter, Handy begs off the favor of arranging shipment of enslaved persons on account of his "Friends" being bitterly opposed to the practice but offers that he knows a trader willing to arrange the sale.

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