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[Anonymous.]

[Manuscript notice regarding the ownership of three escaped and captured slaves.]

Granville, Co., North Carolina, 18 April 1821. Manuscript notice, 7.5” x 9”, 1 p. CONDITION: Very good, dampstain along lower margin.

An unusual notice penned by a Virginia slave owner announcing his claim over three slaves—named and likely a family—evidently held by a slave catcher/thief who was refusing to release them.

The notice reads in full:

This is to Certify that I have in my Possession three negroes viz Anderson Lucinda & her Child Armistead which negroes has absconded from Mecklenburg County Virginia the said negroes have been in the possession of William Moody of Virginia, This is therefore to forwarn all persons from trading for said negroes or carrying them out of the County, as they are my property and have never been conveyed to said Moody in any way whatever, they are further forwarned from trading with said Moody or his Agent for said negroes, as they will be delt [sic] by as the law directs

Granville County April 18th 1821

Unless claimed by their owner within a given period of time, escaped slaves, whether jailed or held by a slave-catcher, were regularly sold again. This note was presumably intended for newspaper publication, though we have not been able to confirm that it was printed. While multiple interpretations of this text are possible, what seems most likely is that the author, like Moody, was from Mecklenburg County; that his slaves were somehow captured—and certainly retained—by Moody; and that by publicizing this fact in neighboring Granville County in North Carolina, he hoped to prevent Moody from selling Anderson, Lucinda, and Armistead further south.

Unusual evidence of the movement of an enslaved family and the efforts of their white owner to reestablish his ownership.

Item #8926

Price: $1,750.00

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