African Americana

Manuscript copy of the 1849 last will and testament of Mary Giles Carroll (1782-1851), as certified by Judge David L. Turner of the Probate Court. Edgefield County, SC, 4 June 1871. 5pp, 7 3/4 x 12 3/4 in. (creasing at folds, light soil). 

Carroll, the wealthy widow of planter James Parsons Carroll and an Irish immigrant, is listed in the 1850 US Federal Census Slave Schedules as enslaving 41 women and children. In her will she bequeaths to her daughter Elizabeth C. Laborde her "negro slave Sarah and the youngest two children she may have at the time of my decease"; to her granddaughter Ellen Carroll Laborde her "negro slave Jane and her future increase"; to her grandson Oscar Laborde her "negro boy slave Captain"; and to her granddaughter Mary Elizabeth Laborde her "negro girl slave Fanny and her future increase." 

[With:] Manuscript "Bill of Sale of property at Nancy Whitmires /  Deceased This Feby 3rd 1860" including "1 Negro Woman." [Pickens, SC], [1860]. 4pp, 8 x 12 3/4 in. (light soil, chipping at edge lines, folds).

Estate papers on file with the US Wills and Probate Records include a "Bill of Appraisement" for the Nancy Whitmire (?-1860) estate. The version offered here appears to be a draft bill of sale from the liquidation of the property with the inclusion of a name, presumably the buyer of Whitmire's property, alongside the price paid for the listed property. The enslaved "Negro Woman" was sold to "Carwell Hester" for $416.00.