[ENSLAVEMENT]. Letter directing conveyance of slaves via wagon driven by a "Black man." TN, 1841.

RINGO, E. M. ALS to Major John H. Bills of Bolivar, TN. Fayetteville, TN, 10 December 1841.

2 pages, on bifolium, 6 3/4 x 9 in. Address panel on terminal leaf postmarked at Fayetteville, TN on 10 December. Docketed on verso.

In part: "I rec'd your letter of Date Nov. 18th in good time, & was glad that you would let me have Elizabeth's & William's Negroes by the 20th of the month. I have this day started a waggon [sic] to Bolivar for them & expect it will get there on the 17 or 18th day of the month...I wish you if you please to see that the Black ones do not bring more than they can well do with, as I do not want the waggon too heavy loaded. I intend that as many of the women & children to ride as can conveniently & the Men & Boys must walk. I Send a Black man to drive teh waggon & intend that him & French to have the entirely controle [sic] of the trip, the Reason I send this Black man I have more confidence in him than any White man a bout [sic] heare [sic] that is a driving of a waggon or at least that I could get to go. I beleave [sic] him to be Strickly honist [sic]."

He continues, writing about provisions for the enslaved people: "You will please to furnish the Negros with what Meat and & Bread that you may think will do them...allso [sic] furnish them with three or four dollars worth of Shugar [sic] & Coffee that is if they want it, & if they choose it, let Conna parch & grind it before they start...& furnish them with a fine looking vessels & tin cups if it is necessary & Charge French that I want them to eat their breakfast by daylight So that the waggon may start by Sunup...Capt Saml. Todd will be at Bolivar a bout [sic] the time my waggon will get there & he will if needed assist in getting the Negros off."

While there is little information to be found about E. M. Ringo, his letter's recipient, Major John Houston Bills (1800-1871), was well-known and well-documented in government records. His daughter's obituary called him "a pioneer merchant of West Tennessee." The 1860 Slave Schedule records that Bills owned 80 enslaved persons ranging in age from one year old to 60 years old. He fathered 8 children, and had amassed a combined real and personal estate value of $195,000 by 1870, the year before his death.

Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Ephemeral Americana and Historical Documents