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Lot 512: Rare 1856 Slavery Document, MS

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Lot  512: Rare 1856 Slavery Document, MS
<b>Black History</b><hr><b>Free Negro Seeks Permission To Cross Bridge Daily!</b>

<b>1856. Rare Document In Which A Free Slave Seeks Police Permission To Earn A Living in Mississippi.</b>
Manuscript Document, being an appeal on behalf of Isaac Adams, a Free Negro; 1 page, 7.75' x 11.75', Port Gibson, Claiborne County [Mississippi], April 5, 1856. Choice Extremely Fine. In full: 'To the Honbl the members of the Board of Police of Claiborne County. Isaac Adams or Mathews a Free Negro man and a waggoner for many years from Grand Gulf to this place is desirin of obtaining a permit to cross the Bridge not between this & Grand Gulf pr quarter year or month, as well as himself to make change twice a day - Isaac Drives a Feon Horse Team. He will pay in advance either monthly or quarterly as your Honors may wish. Respectfully Submitted, Dan M. Dougall. On behalf of Isaac. One of your Members Mr. Hall And Mr. Ja Gage I have no Doubt know Isaac to be Honest & trust worthy, & that He has been very useful to the Citizens, or many of them, of Both our Towns, as a waggoner & ÔExpress.Õ D.M.D.'

In the slave states, the period leading up to the Civil War saw ever-increasing restrictions on manumission, the expulsion of freedmen, and a general deterioration in the free NegroesÕ conditions of life. Mississippi, in particular, had only a few hundred free Negroes - at a time when there were 500,000 in the United States - and for a freedman life there, as this document testifies, was restrictive and harsh.