African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Subject
Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
Found in 9 Collections and/or Records:
Address to the People of Hinds County Broadside by John D. Freeman
Collection
Identifier: MSS-4752
Scope and Contents
The Address to the People of Hinds County, authored by John D. Freeman in 1865, is a broadside that explores the legal and social status of freedmen in Mississippi during the Reconstruction era. In the address, Freeman acknowledges the constitutional amendments granting formerly enslaved individuals personal liberty and property rights while emphasizing the state’s role in protecting these rights. He particularly focuses on the legal implications of these...
Dates:
1865
Alabama Court Seizure of an Enslaved Woman
Collection
Identifier: MSS-4912
Scope and Contents
This collection contains a document issued by an Alabama circuit court to the sheriff of Lawrence County, instructing him to seize the "goods, chattles, lands, and tenements" of James A. Francisco to settle a debt that he owed to Charles McClung and Sons. The document records the original amount of the debt as well as what the merchant wanted for damages and court costs. It states that one enslaved "girl named Virgin" was "levied" to cover Francisco's fees. It is unclear whether this was the...
Dates:
November 9-18, 1823
Captain Edwin Malaney Letter
Collection
Identifier: MSS-5071
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of a four-page letter signed by Captain Edwin Malaney of the 30th U.S. Colored Infantry, dated September 19, 1865, and written from Morehead City, North Carolina. In this letter, Malaney reflects on the end of the Civil War and the challenges of Reconstruction, particularly the violent hostility of Southern whites toward newly freed African Americans. He describes the South as a harsh and oppressive environment and he condemns the Confederate leadership and white...
Dates:
1865-09-19
Edward V. Sparhawk Letters Regarding Tucker vs. Randolph's Executors
Collection
Identifier: MSS-5023
Scope and Contents
This collection contains two letters from Edward Vernon Sparhawk to Walter Jones, regarding Tucker vs. Randolph's Executors, a case related to the will of Virginia planter and politician John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia. Sparhawk contacted Jones, who litigated the case before the Supreme Court, to inform Jones of his research, which Sparhawk planned to publish in an article or book. The first letter, dated August 5, 1835, was sent from Richmond,...
Dates:
1835-08-05; 1835-10-01
Richard Dennis Letter, 1803 August 8
File — Box 4250.001: [Barcode: 1006290115], Folder: 3
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of a letter dated August 8, 1803, written by Richard Dennis in Philadelphia to John Milledge, Governor of Georgia, concerning two free women of color who had evidently been detained at Savannah, Georgia, en route to Baltimore by persons who then attempted to sell them. Dennis informed Milledge that he was called on by two men from Philadelphia who claimed to have papers proving the women's free status and stating that "should there be any thing in those papers to...
Dates:
1803 August 8
Septimus D. Cabaniss papers
Collection
Identifier: MSS-0252
Abstract
Legal and personal papers of the Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, attorney, S.D. Cabaniss, who served as executor for the estate of Samuel Townsend. Also includes materials of other Huntsville attorneys and of the S.D. Cabaniss family.
Dates:
1820 - 1937
The Injustice of Poll Taxes Broadside
Collection
Identifier: MSS-4746
Scope and Contents
This broadside, The Injustice of Poll Taxes Broadside, authored by Henry P. Farrow, is a passionate plea against the implementation of the poll tax in Georgia during the Reconstruction era. Written at a pivotal moment while the Georgia Reconstruction Constitutional Convention was in session, Farrow’s argument articulates the economic and moral injustices of such a tax, which disproportionately affected the poor of all races and ultimately served as a...
Dates:
1867
W. L. Campbell Deposition, 1849 April 12
File — Box 4250.001: [Barcode: 1006290115], Folder: 15
Scope and Contents
A deposition by W. L. Campbell involving a lawsuit against James Campbell over ownership of an enslaved woman named Harriet and her children, Elkton, Kentucky, April 12, 1849. The testimony reveals that in the summer of 1845, James Campbell asked W. L. "to write a letter to Maria Louvard a sister of the negro woman and at the same time he showed me a letter from the s[ai]d Maria requesting him to hire her the women he had purchased of Thomas Campbell and he stated that In [sic] his reply...
Dates:
1849 April 12
William Law Legal Brief, circa 1830
File — Box 4250.001: [Barcode: 1006290115], Folder: 8
Scope and Contents
A legal brief by Georgia attorney and state agent William Law describing the status of two cases involving seized enslaved persons, circa 1830. One case pertained to Spanish claims surrounding three vessels, the Poletena, the Tentativa, and the Syrena.
Dates:
circa 1830