[Manuscript report with affidavits relating to the sale of an enslaved woman named Kate and her child Henry.]

Talladega, Alabama, 4 April and 4 May 1854. 3 pp. on bifolium. Related newspaper clipping from the Democratic Watchtower, 3” x 2.25”, mounted on p. 2. Two affidavits notarized by “Jas. Lawson J.P.” Docketed on p. 4, “S. Bowdon report of A. W. Bowie Guardian.” CONDITION: Good, old folds, light staining from rusted paper clips.

A manuscript report detailing and confirming the public sale, ordered by a probate court, of a slave woman named Kate and her child Henry, both of whom were owned by the daughter of Thomas Chilton, the ghost writer of Davy Crockett’s autobiography.

Addressing Jonathan M. McClanahan, the presiding Judge of Probate Court for Shelby County, Alabama, attorney Andrew W. Bowie Esq. opens this document with a statement declaring that a notice of thirty days was given of the time and place for the sale of two enslaved people, “Kate a negro woman and Henry her child,” who were the property of Sarah E. Chilton Bowdon (1821–1878). Bowie, a relative of Bowdon, here acts as her guardian. He states that the sale was advertised for four consecutive weeks (commencing on 1 Apr. 1854) in the Democratic Watchtower, “a newspaper published in the town of Talladega,” and also by a public advertisement posted at the Talladega Court House. He notes that Kate and Henry were sold to Massingill H. Porter for a price of one $1,015.

Bowie’s statement is followed by an affidavit, dated 4 Apr. 1854, by James H. Joiner, who states that he is the publisher of the Democratic Watchtower, and that the advertisement he attaches here was published in his paper for four consecutive weeks. The ad describes Kate and Henry and reads in full:

Notice! Notice! By virtue of an order of the Judge of the Probate Court of Shelby County I will sell to the highest bidder before the Court House door in the town of Talladega on the first Monday in May next, a likely negro girl aged about nineteen years and her child a smart active boy about four years old, the property of Sarah Bowdon; on the following terms, to wit: One third of the price to be paid in cash, the remaining two thirds on a credit of twelve months. The purchaser will be required to give a note with two good securities for that portion of the purchase money not paid in cash. A. W. Bowie, Guardian of Sarah Bowdon. April 1st ‘54.

The document concludes with an affidavit of 4 May 1854 by E. A. Cowen, who identifies himself as the auctioneer for Talladega County and attests that he sold at public auction, before the Court House Door in Talladega and by request of Andrew W. Bowie, “two negroes to wit a girl [crossed-out] woman named Kate & her child a boy as the property of Sarah Bowdon.” Cowen also states that he has read the notice attached to Mr. Joiner’s affidavit, “and that the highest and best bid that could be obtained for said negroes, which were sold together, was one thousand & fifteen dollars and that Massengill H. Porter [1814–1894] was the purchaser.”

Sarah Elizabeth Chilton Bowdon (ca. 1821–1878) was born in Kentucky, the daughter of Thomas Chilton (1798–1854) and Frances T. S. Chilton. Thomas Chilton was a minister, slave owner, and Kentucky congressman who ghost wrote Davy Crockett’s “autobiography.” Chilton was first seated in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1828. In Washington, D.C., he took residence at a boarding house where he was lodged in the same room as Crockett, who was a Representative from Tennessee. The two men quickly became friends and spent much of the next six years working in concert together politically. When the book Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee was published in 1834, many readers suspected the autobiography was created by someone other than Crockett himself. It had indeed been crafted by Chilton, from Crockett’s written materials and in response to Chilton’s questioning; the two friends had agreed to complete public silence on the matter. A biographer of Crockett, James A. Shackford, later unearthed letters in Crockett’s hand that revealed the circumstances of the book’s creation. In 1835, Chilton resumed the Baptist ministry in addition to law practice, and in 1839 he moved with his family to Talladega, Alabama. On 15 August 1854, Thomas Chilton died from a heart attack while delivering a sermon before his congregation.

Sarah Chilton married Franklin Welsh Bowdon (1817–1857), an Alabama congressman and Democrat who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1846 to 1851. In 1852, the couple moved to Henderson, Texas, where Franklin resumed his law practice as the partner of Sarah’s brother, George W. Chilton (1828–1883), who was a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, and later a delegate to the Secession Convention and a Confederate Army officer. George Chilton, like his father Thomas Chilton and his mother, moved to Texas in 1851. When the Bowdon family removed from Alabama to Texas, it appears they left Kate and Henry behind, possibly renting them out. Evidently, Sarah Bowdon decided to sell them in 1854 and put the matter in the hands of their lawyer family member Andrew W. Bowie, who was living in Alabama.

Andrew W. Bowie (ca. 1822–1900) fought in the Mexican-American War and raised the first military company in Alabama for service in the Civil War, Company A of the Eighth Alabama Cavalry, and served as its Captain. After the war he returned to practicing law in Talladega.

REFERENCES: Moore, Albert Burton. History of Alabama and Her People, Vol. 2 (New York: American Historical Society, 1927), p. 625; Krakow, Kenneth K. Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins (Macon, GA: Winship Press, 1975), p. 23.