Page 20 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

14 ● (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—SLAVE CULTURE, CRAFT.) Slave made
wooden cradle. 40 x 16 inches; some wear along all edges consistent with age; warm
patina. South Carolina, circa first quarter 19th century [6,000/8,000]
A RARE EXAMPLE OF THE SORT OF CRAFT ONE MIGHT FIND IN THE SLAVE QUARTERS
OF A PLANTATION. In the slave culture of the 18th and 19th centuries, nothing but the barest
essentials were given to slaves. Their clothing was of the cheapest, and most “practical” the slave
owner could buy, and haberdashers carried what would be described as “slave clothing” and
“slave shoes.” Usually a slave was provided with one set of clothes; anything that was above
and beyond these bare essentials had to be made or bought. In some cases where a slave was
fortunate enough to be allowed to do some extra work for someone in their “spare time,”
enough money might be saved to buy cloth to make a shirt, or dress. Virtually everything that a
slave family owned beyond what was given them by their master was made by them.
This cradle was exhibited at the Schomburg Center’s “Lest We Forget, The Triumph Over
Slavery” (December—February, 2000) and illustrated in the Schomburg Center for Research
in Black Culture’s book, “Jubilee, the Emergence of an African American Culture,” page 117.
(Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2003) It was on exhibit again at the National
Geographic Society in Washington D.C. in 2003.
15 ● (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—COLONIAL MASSACHUSETTS.)
Manuscript slave sale document, wherein J. Ackley of Boston sells a Negro boy
named George to Increase Sumner of Roxbury for the sum of eighteen pounds.
Single 4toleaf, written on one side and docketed on the reverse as “Sale of Jack”; Signed
by Ackley and witnesses, Wm. Bant and Samuel Swift. Boston, 1762 [800/1,200]
The purchaser of the slave George (or “Jack” as he appears in the docketing) was Increase
Sumner (1746 -1799) a politician from Massachusetts who served as the fifth governor of
Massachusetts from 1797 to 1799. Sumner was trained as a lawyer and served in the provi-
sional government of Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War.
14