Manuscripts

mssHM 43974-44029

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Description: Letters (including one volume of the captain's letterbook) and documents concern slaves and the slave trade, including the purchase and treatment of slaves; the equipment, crew, activities, and finances of a slave ship; precautions taken to disguise the true nature of the voyage. The record of the voyage extends from November, 1824 through October, 1825.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1822-1828.
Call number: mssHM 43974-44029
Creator: Jeune Louis, Le (Ship : Nantes, France)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from John Howell, September, 1958.

[Ship's Journal] No. 1 of Le Jeune Louis: [Logbook] from French Clandestine Slave Trade papers

Manuscripts

This collection contains the original French documents relating to an African slave trade expedition undertaken by the French ship Le Jeune Louis in 1824-1825. The trip extended from Nantes to the coast of Nigeria, from there to Havana and back to Flushing.There are 38 letters, 63 documents, and five volumes, one of which is the captain's letterbook. All of the papers pertain directly to the slave ships equipment, the crew, salaries, merchandise, accounts, passports, bills of health, and an insurance policy. The actual purchase of the slaves, their prices and negotiations with Negro Kings is discussed in one of the journals and other papers. There are records of suicides and deaths. Information regarding the precautions taken to veil the true nature of the expedition is included. The record of the voyage extends from November 1824 through October 4, 1825.

mssHM 43974-44029

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John T. B. McMaster ledger of the medical practice of John T. B. McMaster and John L. Hearn

Manuscripts

This bound-volume is a ledger kept by Dr. John T. B. McMaster and his partner Dr. Hearn regarding their medical visits to citizens of New Town, Worcester County, Maryland from 1850 to 1852. The doctors include name of patient (some of the time), reason for visiting, treatment, date of visit, and the fee paid to them for services. The doctors treated both whites and blacks (free blacks, fugitives and slaves). In their ledger, if the patient was black, they would write "Negro" after the patients' name (although it is expected that not every black is identified as such). The patients include a slave at Beverly, a large estate owned by John Upshur Dennis.

mssHM 71482

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Arrest warrants and records of interrogation of slaves accused of arson

Manuscripts

On February 23, 1832, a group of slaves belonging to Moses Dickey Kilpatrick (1790-1855), Daniel Webb, Samuel Lecky, and other slave owners of Rowan County were discovered to planning coordinated arson attacks. According to the testimony, Jack, "a negro slave the property of Daniel Webb," was "talking about the patrollers he saith they had been riding and that any man would raise his hand before he would suffer death and that would have to be a stop put to them (the patrollers), and that any terms that Daniel or any of them would let him know he would go and burn big Samuel Leckey's barn." He also was reported as saying that "he wanted to burn Lecky's barn because Lecky had struck Jack's wife at home." Another slave, Daniel persuaded other slaves "to burn Dicky Kilpatrick's barn, and to carry coals in a horn" and "Abe a negro belonging to Margaret Irwin was to burn James Kerrs barn." On March 3, 1832, the Rowan County court issued arrest warrants for the slaves involved. (One of the judges, Abel Graham (1787-1844), was brother-in-law of Moses D. Kilpatrick.) The group includes the warrants and the records of interrogations of accused slaves Jack, Daniel, Newton, Alfred and Will.

mssHM 83163-83166

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mssHM 73830-73862

Manuscripts

This collection contains thirty letters chiefly from the Steele family of Ann Arbor, Michigan, between 1856 and the 1870s, to Ellen Steele Sturges (1837-1930). All but one of which are addressed to Ellen (or Ellen and David) Sturges from her immediate family (and one friend, identified only as "Rebecca"). The aberrant letter was written in 1856 to David B. Sturges from Ellen (it is unclear if they were already married at this point). The correspondence contains detailed descriptions of the failing health and treatment of Julia and Valentine Steele in the months leading up to their deaths. There are occasional references to cultural and religious life in Ann Arbor in the letters of the 1866-1876 period, especially regarding the growth of the Methodist Church and the public speeches of Erastus Otis Haven (1863-1869), the second president of the University of Michigan and pastor of the First United Methodist Church. Though politics and national affairs are rarely discussed, HM 73855 includes Phebe Steele's thoughts on President Ulysses S. Grant's unsuccessful bid for a third term. Ebenezer and Phebe Steele express deep anxiety throughout the 1866 correspondence as to their daughter's safety from Indians in Montana, though no specific events are referenced. In addition to the correspondence, there is a family record, believed to be in the hand of Phebe Steele, detailing the birth and death dates of the siblings and parents of Ebenezer Steele, as well as a folder containing seven empty envelopes.

mssHM 73830-73862

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Track of the Sea Witch from New York to San Francisco

Manuscripts

The track is a log of the daily latitude and longitude of the ship during the voyage

mssHM 62930

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James P. Hammet accounts

Manuscripts

Misc. records and accounts that Dr. Hammet entered in in January - May 1861 (ff. 1-21 v., 61-62); October 1862 - August 1863 (42-46, 49, 59, 66 v.) and July - November 1865 (ff. 22- 31 v, 40, 42, 46 v., 57-58) The entries list his patients' names, medicines and treatments administered, and fees received. Dr. Hammet's clientelle consisted mainly of local families and their slaves and employees of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company. The patients include John Wyn Davidson, Gabriel C. Wharton, "Capt. Ward No. 1 Hospital Camp case," "William, slave of Miss Virinia Allen," "Wyatt slave of Miss Lettinch hire to Bob Buchner," "Dick, slave of Col. Garnett," and others. At the end of the book (ff. 70 v. - 71), there is a summary of the accounts of "D. Barnett" from July 1853 to Apr. 1859 and the 1860 accounts with the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company (f. 73 v.).

mssHM 71550

mssHM 43974-44029

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[Ship's Journal] No. 1 of Le Jeune Louis: [Logbook] from French Clandestine Slave Trade papers

John T. B. McMaster ledger of the medical practice of John T. B. McMaster and John L. Hearn

Arrest warrants and records of interrogation of slaves accused of arson

mssHM 73830-73862

Track of the Sea Witch from New York to San Francisco

James P. Hammet accounts