Slave Voices

For $1,500 Jacob Cook bought several slaves in 1850. Those slaves had been owned by Mary Caton before her death.

When she died, and her estate was probated, Caton's Will listed slaves as "inventory." Her heirs inherited people just as they inherited tangible things like furniture. And as they could sell inherited goods, Mary's heirs could sell inherited people. Sometimes those people were sold to satisfy debts of the estate.

Such ownership documentation was required for the "master" to claim a runaway slave was a fugitive. Jacob Cook, like many other slaveholders, made such a claim against his slave.

The United States Federal Court even had a special book for tracking fugitive slaves. The link depicts an example from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. It covers the decade from September 1850-November 1860.

After the Civil War was over, North and South wanted to move past slavery issues. "Enough" had been said - and done - to cause damage. Why perpetuate animosity and negative feelings? As a result, the opportunity to contemporaneously record the oral histories of an emancipated people was lost.

In the 1930s, however, the federal government employed writers who interviewed thousands of elderly, former slaves. What follows, in the succeeding chapters, are examples of those narratives.