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Case Auctions
Live Auction

2022 Summer Fine Art & Antiques (Day 1)

Sat, Jul 9, 2022 09:00AM EDT
Lot 654

2 Slave Documents, Nashville TN & North Carolina

Estimate: $700 - $900

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$3,000 $200
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000
2 Slavery related items pertaining to Charles Ordway, Hardee Murfree, and Gen. Thomas Eaton of Tennessee and North Carolina. 1st item: Handwritten one-page inventory listing the names and ages of slaves belonging to Charles Ordway of Nashville plus those of the slaves brought to his marriage by his wife Mary Crockett Bramlett. Dated February 1862. The list includes the first names of ninety-one men, women, and children with their numerical ages, the youngest recorded as "Sallie Anne 0" and the oldest recorded as "Joe 71", with a line of text reading "Negros taxable from 12 to 15-15 to 30-30 to 40-40 to 50" along the lower right margin. Additional ink and pencil inscriptions, en verso. 2nd item: 1873 copy of an 1807 handwritten three-and-one-half page bifolium slave deed from General Thomas Eaton of Warren County NC (c. 1739-1809), to his granddaughter Frances Bland Dudley and his friend Colonel Hardee Murfree, both of Williamson County, Tennessee. Eaton was a military officer in the North Carolina militia during the War of the Regulation in 1771 and the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1784. Colonel Hardee Murfree (1752-1809), was a lieutenant colonel from North Carolina during the American Revolutionary War, and an early settler of Middle Tennessee. The deed grants four slaves by the names of Jeffrey, Ephraim, Lisbon, and Chance to Dudley and Murfree. Includes two envelopes, not postmarked. Note: In addition to Eaton's military service, he was a member of the North Carolina Provincial Congress and North Carolina House of Commons for several terms simultaneously with his military service. Eaton was a member of the North Carolina Council of State under Governor Richard Caswell. At the time of the 1790 census, Eaton was one of the largest slaveholders in North Carolina. A miniature portrait of him is also being sold in this auction.

Property of the Lincoln County Museum, Fayetteville, TN; Bequest of Mary Bright Wilson (1909-2004), formerly of Fayetteville, and descended in her family.

Condition

All items in overall good, legible condition with toning/acid burn, tears, areas of loss, foxing spots, dampstaining, to be expected from age and manner of use. 1st item: Areas of loss, largest 3 1/4" x 3/4" with one area obscuring the age of one individual, center right.