American Historical Ephemera & Photography, including African Americana

THEOBALD, Dr. Samuel (1790-1867). Autograph letter signed ("S. Theobald"). Frankfort, [Kentucky], 5 October 1844. Addressed to Dr. Lloyd Warfield of Lexington, KY. 1p, 7 3/4 x 12 1/2 in., address panel on verso.

Theobald writes to his brother-in-law Dr. Lloyd Warfield regarding plans for purchasing enslaved persons for their southern plantation and details regarding the transport of those slaves.

"In regard to the disposition to be made of the woman we are to get of Mr. Davis, I must refer it to you to do what you think is best. I do not think we came under any obligation to take her to the South. I understand from him that he did not wish her located near him, that is, in his neighborhood, and so far as that, I would feel disposed to act in accordance with his wishes but I do not feel that he has a right to expect any thing further. I do not know what disposition you could make of her in the way of sale or exchange but if either could be expected at all favourably to our interest I should feel very much gratified, and deem it a good deed. I desire, at all events that she may be taken care of at Lex. 'til I am ready to start."

"We ought as you say to procure two or three more and those boys if we could. We have now nine however instead of eight as you say. Two from Lewis, one from Craig, Ann & the two boys from you, Chas. & Mary & the girl Lucinda from Bacon. Six females & 3 boys. If we could get one or two young men at fair prices it would be well, but I would be unwilling to pay an extravagant price and on the whole I question if boys would not suit us best."

"If you are satisfied that it would be safe to trust the servants we got from Lewis out of confinement here and you choose to send them down you may do so but don't send them in any other condition. If they have to be put in confinement let it be done there. The expense of sending them down would not be as great as keeping them in jail if you deem it safe and if you should so deem it I should be pleased because I dislike extremely putting them or any of them in confinement. Talk to the woman freely & find out if you can what are her feelings & purposes."

Dr. Lloyd Warfield (1799-1872) and Dr. Samuel Theobald were partners in operating a Honey Island, Mississippi, plantation in the 1830s. Advertisements in the Vicksburg Tri-Weekly Sentinel (27 November 1838) and in the Lexington Union (1 December 1838) show that Warfield, Theobald, and another party offered their Honey Island plantation for sale along with the 25 enslaved African Americans who resided there. Though the exact location of the plantation discussed in this letter is not clear, it seems likely that the men remained engaged in the Mississippi region in the 1840s as Dr. Theobald was living in Greenville, Washington County, Mississippi, when he died in 1867. The exporting of enslaved persons to the Deep South was a hallmark of slavery as it existed in Kentucky. The state had a surplus of slaves and had smaller farms than the plantation complexes of the Deep South, and so large numbers of slaves were sold and/or transported to southern states to labor on larger plantations. Slave trading was a lucrative business for many Kentucky enslavers. The city of Lexington, from which Warfield hailed, was the center of slave trade in Kentucky.