So far I’ve focused on the more detailed and interesting manumissions that I’ve found in the New Haven records, but there are also quite few that only state the name and one or two details of the enslaved people being manumitted. Generally they all followed the basic form: slaveholder’s name, enslaved person’s name (usually without … Continue reading Five Basic Manumissions: Sylva (1802, 52/97), Prince (1806, 52/425), Pomp (1807, 57/18), William Dean (1811, 57/237), and Hager (1809, 64/88)

I’m going to break my usual rule and talk a bit about the slaveholders here, because the language of the manumission document is interesting and unusual. According to the land records from the rural town of Canterbury, between April 1775 (time of their purchase) and January 3, 1780 (date of the document), they had come … Continue reading Christopher, Katharine, Archelaus, Cloe & Zackeus Ama

Even moderately perceptive readers (which I’m sure is all 5 of you) will have noticed that I’ve been avoiding naming the slaveholders who issued these various manumissions. The point of that is simply to center the enslaved people in their own stories when I’m trying to talk about them. Nonetheless, it is obvious that the … Continue reading Slaveholder Roundup #1: New Haven

On June 11, 1793, a man named Peter apparently did not pay a cent to the slaveholder who filed this manumission – at any rate, the document does not mention any compensation. Its wording is likewise a bit different from the others I’ve looked at: Know all Men by these Presents, that I ... do … Continue reading New Haven: Peter (1793)

What should we think of slaveholders who freed enslaved people in their wills? On the one hand, I suppose it’s great that they did that. On the other hand, what kept them from doing the right thing while they were alive? Sometimes I think they had Judgment Day in mind, and hoped this gesture would … Continue reading New Haven: Phyllis and Sharper (1785/1793)