Autograph document signed by James Allen. [Virginia?], circa 1804?. 3 pages. Docketed to verso, "No. 3 Defdts exception Sept 1829."

A fascinating court document presenting facts in a complicated case of acquisition and ownership of an enslaved woman named Flora and her two children, Cena and Unis. Though undated, the document presents facts from 1784 when a certain James Simpkins purchased the enslaved individuals. The document later refers to these events as happening 20 years earlier, providing a rough date of about 1804. Docketing to verso, however places it at September 1829.

At the heart of the conflict, the enslaved woman Flora sought her freedom from James Charlton, who believed he had purchased them from James Simpkins. The document notes that "Charlton observed that, if Flora and her family obtained their freedom he could not lose by it, as he had purchased them (the said negroes) from James Simpkins, who would be responsible to him for their value, thereupon the defendants called said James Simpkins as a witness." 

Much of the document records detailed witness reports of when, how, and the details of their acquisition, involving James Simpkins, his brother Robert, other family members, and a man named James Stephens and his family. The testimony relates that Simpkins bought the slaves on behalf of Stephens: "The defendants proved by one witness who was present that Simpkins said at the time he made the purchase that he purchased them as the agent of Stephens and paid for them in dressed deer skins + cut money which he said was the property of Stephens, that Stephens was not present when the purchase was made, but a few days afterwards Stephens said they were purchased for him and with his property." Another witness also notes Stephen's financial situation: "James Stephens left New York on foot some seven or eight months before the time his family moved, that his creditors did not know of his coming off but it was known to some persons in the neighborhood that Stephens was so poor as to be unable to buy a cow and it was also proved that Stephens after he came to Virginia was still very poor."

The document does not reveal the outcome of the case but does reveal the complex relationships and dealings in the late 18th-century acquisition of slaves and their possible freedom. A fascinating slavery document.

[Slavery, Abolition, Manuscripts, Ephemera, Documents, Enslavement]