Lancaster County Slave Document

Registration for the slave Jesse, child of Jude

Registration of Negro child Jesse, son of Negro slave Jude, May 22, 1798. Handwritten document. Lancaster County Historical Society, 230 North President Avenue, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17603; (717) 392-4633. Document Collection: Case 1, Folder 17.

text

Text of the advertisement in the image above:

"In Pursuance of an Act of Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania I Susanna Edwards of the Borough of Lancaster in the County of Lancaster Widow Do hereby enter and return that Jesse a Negroe Male Child the Son of Negroe Jude a female Slave was born on the First Day of January in the Year of our Lord One thousand and seven hundred & ninety Eight, and that his said Mother Jude was duly entered and registered in Lancaster County as a Slave pursuant to the Act 'for the gradual abolition of Slavery' and that the aforesaid Negroe Child Jesse is my Property and liable to serve untill he shall attain to the Age of Twenty Eight Years.
Witness my Hand the Twenty second Day of May in the Year of our Lord one thousand and seven hundred and ninety Eight.
Susanna Edwards.
To John Hubley Esquire
Clk of the Peace for Lancaster
County."

notes

The mother of Jesse, identified in this document as Jude, was also identified as the mother of several other slaves: Dina, born in 1788, Nathaniel (Nixon), born in 1790, and Michael, born in 1793. Except for Jesse, all of Jude's children were registered by Thomas Edwards. Upon Thomas Edward's death, prior to the registration of Jesse in 1798, possession of the Edwards' slaves went to his widow Susanna. As can be seen from the document above, it was Susanna who registered the slave children, as her property, after her husband's death.

In the 1800 Septennial Census, only one slave was listed under Susanna Edwards' name, a 36-year old female slave. In all likelihood, this was Jude. No children appear in the listings, so it is not known how many of Jude's children were still living with the Edwards' family. At least one of her children, Nathaniel, is known to have been sold to Jonathan Jones of Manheim, Lancaster County. Nathaniel ran away from Jones in June, 1806. In an advertisement placed in the Lancaster Journal, Jones notes that Nathaniel "formerly belonged to the late widow Edwards of Lancaster" and had been sighted in Downingtown, where he "said he was going to Philadelphia, to see his mother." This indicates that after Susanna Edwards' death, sometime prior to 1806, Jude was sold to a new owner who lived in Philadelphia, or possibly was manumitted and moved to that city.

sources

• Returns of Negro and Mulatto Children Born After the Year 1780
• Lancaster County Septennial Census Returns, 1800
• Lancaster Journal, June 20, 1806.
• Registration of Negro child Jesse, son of Negro slave Jude, May 22, 1798

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This page was updated on January 29, 2005.