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(20 FREED SLAVES DRAW THEIR FIRST PAYCHECK)

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:300.00 - 500.00 USD
(20 FREED SLAVES DRAW THEIR FIRST PAYCHECK)
Highly unusual A. D. S., 4pp. legal folio, [n.p., but likely Mississippi], December 26, 1866, in which 20 recently freed slaves, each listed by name and all with the last name of “Lamb“, are paid wages for their labor in the preceding year. Each freedman, upon receipt of his wages, was required to sign for them. The former slaves, not having had the opportunity to learn to read or write, have signed with an “x” next to their names. Since some slaves received wages for the labor of their entire family, nine slaves have signed the document. Considering that the entire labor force represented on this document all have the same surname, we may safely assume that they are all shared a common owner and remained on the plantation after their emancipation. Having no last name of their own, the freedmen, as was often the case, simply took the last name of their former master. The document accounts for a year’s wages and was likely the first time these people had ever been paid for their labor. One can only imagine the emotions they must have experienced at this event, and the celebration that took place that evening, especially since the cancellation on the revenue stamps attached to the document indicate that it was signed on Christmas day! Document bears the usual folds, one marginal tear, otherwise in very good condition. This is the first piece of this sort we have encountered.