Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Valuation of Confederate Slaves, 1864, Accession #10938 , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased from William A. Fox Auctions, Inc., Springfield, New Jersey, on April 17, 1990.

Scope and Content Information

This document, a court decree dated February 15, 1864, concerns a group of twenty-six slaves to be divided among the heirs of Mrs. Frances Hamilton, widow of John Hamilton [of Virginia?]. 1

The slaves, valued at $37,750, were divided into seven lots for distribution among Richard W. and Sally Baker; James and Anne I[eeson?]; William A. Hamilton, John F. Hamilton; ? C. Hamilton; Robert P. Hamilton; and Martha Leffew. Each lot was worth $5,392.85 but separate from the slaves was a sixty-two year-old female slave named Betsy "nearly blind and Valueless"; the other legatees paid the sum of $500 to William Hamilton "for the keeping for life the said slave." (George W. Booker, Samuel Baker, James Whitehead, John P. Hamilton, Isiah [Isaiah?] Cunningham, and James Whitehead are also mentioned in this document.)

Values for these slaves vary considerably but the mothers of at least two children were particularly valuable: Esther, age 34, "not healthy," and her two children (three month-old Jarretta and Mack, three years old), were appraised at $1,750; Lindy, age 26, and her two children (nine month-old William Henry and four year-old Millow) and Lucy, age 31, and her two children (two year-old Newton and four year-old Jim) were worth $3,500 per family group.

1 There is no indication of the state in which this court was located but internal evidence indicates Virginia as a possibility. However, Frances and John Hamilton, Isiah Cunnigham and others were not enumerated in the 1850 or 1860 Census of Virginia.