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ShadowOfThePit 18 hours ago [-]
Transcription:
> Recd of Judge S. Williams six hundred Dollars in full payment for Jane, a negro woman 18 years old and henry her child, about one year old, together with her future increase if any which negroes I warrant to be sound in body and mind and slaves for life witness my hand and seal this 20th day of Decr 1849.
> The conditions of the above instrument are such that if the undersigned shall pay or cause to be paid to Judge S. Williams by the 1st Jan 1851 the sum of six hundred Dollars good and lawful money the property as above described to revert to the undersigned and the Instrument to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and virtue this Day and Date above written, signed, sealed, and delivered in presents of J. M. Lamply, John Williams seal
$600 in 1849 is equivalent to ~$27,000 today. But since that doesn't tell us much...
In the same year, cows sold for $10 and horses for 80$ [1]. I'm not sure what to think of it. Sounds like a lot, but also way too little.
Why does the number amount matter, does it change the inhumanity of the practice ?
djmips 16 hours ago [-]
Rich people can afford slaves. Abhorrent practice.
tacomagick 16 hours ago [-]
Same as it is today?
black_13 12 hours ago [-]
[dead]
Fezzik 8 hours ago [-]
I was a law clerk at the Multnomah County Courthouse in Portland, Ore. I’d run to work and the showers were in the ancient basement where all the court records were archived. Occasionally, I would route through the records because I found old law stuff interesting. One day I came across a court order for a man to be hanged in the public square. It was from the 1920s. He was black and had married a white woman. Our history is horrific.
PolygonSheep 4 hours ago [-]
Just for marrying a white woman and that alone? Wow!
Babkock 10 hours ago [-]
This might be a bold and controversial opinion for Hacker News, but I'll say it anyway: Slavery is wrong.
31337Logic 8 hours ago [-]
I'll show you "controversial".
*Ahem:
> Slavery is wrong.
But not according to any religious texts.
Happy long weekend, everyone.
bennettnate5 25 minutes ago [-]
Slavery is placed next to other wicked acts (and conversely, helping to free slaves is seen as the morally upright high road) across plenty of texts. It's more productive to condemn those who selectively live their faith in the ways that most convenience them and harm others, rather than making blanket attacks on faith or religion in general.
> And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
> Neither have I suffered that ye should be confined in dungeons, nor that ye should make slaves one of another, nor that ye should murder, or plunder, or steal, or commit adultery; nor even have I suffered that ye should commit any manner of wickedness, and have taught you that ye should keep the commandments of the Lord, in all things which he hath commanded you
> Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves
> Recd of Judge S. Williams six hundred Dollars in full payment for Jane, a negro woman 18 years old and henry her child, about one year old, together with her future increase if any which negroes I warrant to be sound in body and mind and slaves for life witness my hand and seal this 20th day of Decr 1849.
> The conditions of the above instrument are such that if the undersigned shall pay or cause to be paid to Judge S. Williams by the 1st Jan 1851 the sum of six hundred Dollars good and lawful money the property as above described to revert to the undersigned and the Instrument to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and virtue this Day and Date above written, signed, sealed, and delivered in presents of J. M. Lamply, John Williams seal
$600 in 1849 is equivalent to ~$27,000 today. But since that doesn't tell us much...
In the same year, cows sold for $10 and horses for 80$ [1]. I'm not sure what to think of it. Sounds like a lot, but also way too little.
[1] https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008282264&se...
> Slavery is wrong.
But not according to any religious texts.
Happy long weekend, everyone.
> And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
> Neither have I suffered that ye should be confined in dungeons, nor that ye should make slaves one of another, nor that ye should murder, or plunder, or steal, or commit adultery; nor even have I suffered that ye should commit any manner of wickedness, and have taught you that ye should keep the commandments of the Lord, in all things which he hath commanded you
> Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves