A Guide to the Letter Concerning Virginia Slave Prices, February 2, 1857 Virginia Slave Prices, Letter 11410

A Guide to the Letter Concerning Virginia Slave Prices, February 2, 1857

A Collection in
The Special Collections Department
Accession Number 11410


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Processed by: Special Collections Department

Repository
Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Accession number
11410
Title
Letter Concerning Virginia Slave Prices, February 2, 1857
Physical Characteristics
This collection consists of one item.
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Farmville, Va., Slave prices letter, 1857, Accession #11410, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Library purchased this letter from Alexander Autographs, Inc., Cos Cob, Connecticut, June 6, 1998.

Scope and Content Information

This item is a partial letter by an unidentified Farmville, Virginia, resident to Mr. Peter B. Boaz of Murray, February 2, 1857, in which the Virginian describes the price of Negroes (slaves). A typescript of the letter is appended.

Murray was the county seat of Calloway County (founded 1821), Kentucky. The 1850 federal census enumerates a head of household named Peter M. Boaz, a thirty-one-year-old tobacconist who owned $500 in real estate, was born in Virginia, and had married within the year. Other members of his household included his wife Winifred, two brothers, (C. D., a physician, and William M., a carpenter), Elizabeth Carter and J. S. Godwin, all native Virginians. (Population Schedulers of the 7th Census, U. S., 1850: Kentucky, District No. 2, Calloway County, 3rd August 1850, page 43 [upper left corner], line 35, dwelling number 294, family number 296, call number 241, Roll 194.) It was not uncommon for emigrant Virginians who settled in Kentucky and other states to inquire about the prices and purchase of Virginia slaves during the 1850s (Ervin L. Jordan, Jr., Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 5-6).