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Texas Sheriff Appraises A Slave Value, 1851

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Black History

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Slave “John” Is Appraised At $800

1851, Pursuant to A Levy, A Texas Sheriff Appraises A Slave’s Value.
Manuscript Document, in which a sheriff appraises a slave and an agent establishes ownership; 1 page, 6.5” x 8”, Wharton County [Texas], February 24, 1851. Choice Extremely Fine. Sheriff Robertson E. Davis states that he puts John’s value at $800, and on the same sheet, Charles S. Betts, an agent for Ludwig L. Latham, attests that John is and was Latham’s property. All this is in relation to a levy brought against Latham.

Prime field hands - young, able-bodied, unskilled male slaves, aged eighteen to thirty - generally went for $1,200 in Texas in 1860. John, then, was either older, younger, less vital than average - or else Ludwig Latham had the fix in.

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