Freedom For Everyone

The items in this section speak to the complexity of American slavery. Some enslaved people lived on rural plantations and others in urban centers, some performed labor on large-scale plantations while others were hired out by municipal governments. However, the brutality of the institution of slavery is evident in each item. Yet, with these objects an enslaved person’s view is entirely absent. For instance, a receipt of an enslaved woman being sold might tell readers her name, age, place of birth, and what types of labor she could best perform, but what is totally omitted is the thoughts of the enslaved person at the center of this transaction. In this exhibit section, you should read these items as historical texts and consider their limitations.

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Bill of sale of Mary, an enslaved person, from C.W. Hunt to Coulon Jumonville

Tennessee, 1855.

In 1855, an enslaved woman named Mary was sold to Coulon Jumonville of New Orleans, Louisiana. The bill of sale was a crucial component of any slave society. While this document provides shallow biographical detail, this bill of sale neglects to inform the viewer of the community and family Mary might have belonged to; and the degree to which separation and loss were common in the lives of enslaved people.

Report from the city surveyor to the Mayor of New Orleans containing the number of enslaved persons in chain gang

New Orleans, Louisiana, 1831.

Slave labor was not exclusively confined to agriculture-based work on plantations. Slave labor was also used to maintain and advance city infrastructure. This item shows a list of enslaved people whose labor was leased to the city of New Orleans, working in a chain gang.

Portrait circa 1880.

Born into a prominent Calvinist and abolitionist family, Harriet Beecher Stowe published the widely-read and highly-praised Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a central text calling attention to the atrocities that slavery caused in the lives of enslaved people and white Americans. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel and the second best-selling book of the 19th century, following the Bible.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “The Separation of the Mother and Child”

Harriet Beecher Stowe, London: John Cassell, Ludgate Hill, 1852.

The separation of parents from children was common among enslaved people in the United States. Enslaved people often asserted that among slavery’s greatest evils was the inablity for the enslaved to establish stable family units. The fear of being sold posed a frequent threat to enslaved families and communities.

Will and Testament of Benjamin Smith, Governor of North Carolina

Brunswick, North Carolina, 1824.

In 1824, Benjamin Smith, the former governor of North Carolina, entered a will into the state just two years before his death. Smith, a longtime slave owner, owned nearly 221 slaves in 1789. In his will, Smith requests that Betty, Horace, Laura, Lucilla, Sam, and John, all enslaved persons, be emancipated upon his death.

Receipts for Work Completed by Nancy (of Hocy or Lee), an Enslaved Woman

New Orleans, Louisiana, 1843.

This receipt issued by the Treasurer of the Second Municipality of New Orleans is for the work of Nancy, an enslaved woman on a chain gang. She worked at a rate of 18¾ cents per day for 419 days, totaling $78.56 paid to her enslaver.

This collection is housed in the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections and University Archives of Northwestern University Libraries.