Scope and arrangement
Jesse J. Jackson Slavery and Civil War documents collection consists of approximately 90 individual documents relating to Southern slavery and the Civil War. The majority of the documents are manuscript bills of sale and deeds of gift for enslaved persons, issued in North Carolina, 1800-1858. Each document generally gives the enslaved person's name, sex, approximate age, and occasionally other information such as occupation, prices, and names of seller and buyer. Other information provided includes mention that the enslaved person being sold is "at large" and an affidavit accusing a dealer of selling a man's runaway despite the fact that the owner had asked the dealer to hold the runaway until he could be retrieved.
Other documents in the collection include two petitions to courts in Wilcox County, Alabama, asking permission to sell the enslaved persons belonging to estates, dated 1859 and 1862, and four documents issued in Fredericks County, Maryland, attesting to the freedom of the individuals.