Aspects of Enslavement

The lives of the enslaved are generally visible to us primarily because they were treated as commodities. Financial and legal transactions leave a paper trail. These items provide examples of what that paper trail looks like. 

Purchased Lives

Receipts for sale and purchase of enslaved people.

Stolen Labor

Receipts for payments received by owners for the work of enslaved laborers, both skilled and unskilled.

Moveable Property

Financial and legal documents that demonstrate how enslaved people were viewed as property to be traded, gifted, and even impressed for the Confederate war effort.

Impact on Life

Documents showing the impact enslavement had on the ordinary but fundamental aspects of life, including birth and death, medical care, and religion.

Control and Resistance

Documents illustrating resistance to slavery, often only inferred from the threats and punishments with which people attempted to control the enslaved.

Slavery's End

Documents highlighting the way various plantation owners treated people formerly enslaved to them and how they viewed the loss of enslaved labor.