Last Will and Testament of Stephen G. Wells

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.

The original last will and testament of Stephen G. Wells, written in iron gall ink on both sides of four sheets of off-white paper to make eight pages total. The will begins “In the name of God Amen, I Stephen G Wells being in my perfect mind and memory do make and ordain this as my last will + testament.” The will is thus divided into sixteen provisions for Wells’ property, three of which mention enslaved persons. In the second provision, Wells emancipates three enslaved persons: Bob, Kitty and her daughter Sally, asking that they be allowed to remain in Virginia and providing them with pieces of land carved out of Wells’ land and provided them with houses on their portion of the land. He also states they be paid out $50 annually, or “such amounts as they may think their / necessities require.

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