Page 21 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013
Basic HTML Version
16
●
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—NEW JERSEY.)
Early New Jersey
Manuscript Slave Sale Document, wherein Henry H. Hopper of Bergen County,
New Jersey sells Cornelius Leyer (?) “a Negro Wench Named Phill, aged
twenty-seven years together with one Negro male child, named Joe, aged six
years and one Negro female child named Mais, aged eighteen months.”
Large
folio sheet, folded to form four large 4to pages, written on two sides and docketed on the
last. Signed by two witnesses, Hopper signed with an “X.”
Bergen County, New Jersey, 1793
[800/1,200]
17
●
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) WILLIAMS, BENJAMIN.
Autograph manu-
script bill of sale for a Negro girls named Bett, signed by Benjamin Williams,
twice governor of North Carolina.
Single 4to leaf, written on one side and docketed
on the reverse; old cello-tape repairs with dark vertical and horizontal marks. Signed by
Williams and two witnesses.
Bertie County, 1795
[800/1,200]
18
●
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—NEW YORK STATE.)
Manuscript Last Will
and Testament of Thomas Jansen of Shawangunk, New York.
Sewn quire of 12
pages folio, written on 7 sides in a neat cursive hand.
Shawangunk, Ulster County, 1796
[1,500/2,500]
The very complex and detailed will of Thomas Jansen of Shawangunk, New York, in Ulster
County. Thomas Jansen (1735-1806) owned numerous slaves and they are divided among
his children, along with various articles and sums of money. Jansen, “being aged and weak in
body, but sound of mind,” had this will drawn up in 1796, but in fact survived until 1806.
The Thomas Jansen House, a large stone structure, still stands today, and is also known as
Dwaarkin Manor. It was first built in 1727 by Jansen’s father an early Dutch settler, and
added to in 1780. Jansen’s will is fascinating to read in the sense that it gives a picture of life
in Upstate New York at a time when New York state had more than 21,000 slaves; more
than Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware combined. Ulster County was the birthplace of
Isabella Baumfree, better known as Sojourner Truth.
15
16
