Lot 126
1781 Quaker Slave Manumission. Partly-printed slave manumission signed with the mark of Elizabeth Warder of Lower Makefield, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, "this fifteenth day of the fifth month," 1781. One page oblong octavo. Warder "set[s] free from bondage, my Negroe Man named Virgil Williams; aged about forty years, and do…release…all claim whatsoever as to his person, or to any estate he may acquire…." Witnessed by James Moon and Jonathan Kirkbridg and docketed on verso, "… Recorded in quarterly Meeting Book page the 23rd." A 1½ in. strip of paper for mounting is affixed on verso of left margin. Normal aged toning, else Fine. In 1780, Pennsylvania, which was the center of Quakerism in the United States, passed An Act for the Gradual Abolishment of Slavery, and almost all Quakers who owned slaves joined in the movement to free them.
Estimated Value $1,500 - 2,000.
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| Realized $863 |
