Vol. X No. 2, May,
1982 – page 54
SLAVES FOR SALE
This is what a Kentucky
farmer had to sell when he started West in 1849, as the bill now being reprinted
in the county papers says: (date 5 June 1925)
Having sold my farm, and as I am leaving for Oregon territory by oxen team on March 1, 1849, I will sell all my personal property, except two oxen teams, Buck & Ben, and Lon & Jerry, consisting of the following: 2 milk cows, 1 grey mare & colt, 1 pair of oxen, 1 yoke, 1 baby yoke, 2 ox carts, 1 iron plow with wood mold boards.
800’ of poplar weather
boards, 1000 three-foot clap boards, 1500 10-foot fence rails, 1 60-gal. Soap
kettle, 85 sugar troughs made of white ash timber, 10 gallons maple syrup, 2
spinning wheels, 30 lbs mutton tallow, large loom made by Jerry Wilson, 200
poles, 100 split hops, 100 empty barrels.
One 32-gal. Barrel Johnson-Miller whiskey, 7 years old, 20 gallon apple brandy, 1 40-gallon copper still.
Four sides of oak tanned leather, 1 doz wooden pitchforks, a one-half interest in tan yards, 1 32-calibre rifle, bullet molds and powder horn.
Fifty gallons soft soap, hams, bacon & lard, 40 gallons sorgum mollases, 6 head of fox hounds, all soft-mouthed but one.
At the same time I will sell my six negro slaves; 2 men, 35 & 50 years old; 2 boys, 12 & 18 years old; 2 mulatto wenches, 40 & 30 years old. Will sell all together to same party, as I will not separate them.
Terms of sale: Cash in hand or note to draw 4 per cent interest with Bob McConnel security. My home is 2 miles south of Versailles, Kentucky on McConnel Ferry pike. Sale will begin at 8 o’clock a.m. Plenty to eat and drink.
Editor’s note: This sale bill was a family keepsake of the late Crit Pierce, a prominent farmer, stock raiser in Whitley Township, Moultrie Co., IL – now in possession of his daughter, Mrs. Bill (Bess) Black, Sullivan. Born in 1863, this evidently was a keepsake of someone in Mr. P