Overview
Papers concerning the buying and selling of enslaved African Americans.
Dates
- Creation: 1828-1836
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English and French.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
.3 linear feet (1 box)Correspondence, bills of sale for enslaved African Americans (called "Negro" in these documents), balance sheets, bank checks, bills of lading, promissory notes, and other documents relating to the business of slave trading. Documents record the names of enslaved people, age, location of sale, and ships used in transport. Especially mentions ships used for transport: Ajax (Brig), Ariel (Brig), and Louisiana (Brig). Papers are in English and French.
Biographical / Historical
Interstate domestic slave trading in the United States was already well established by 1808 when the importation of enslaved people from other countries was officially abolished. The interstate sale of enslaved people was erratically controlled by the states and by 1850 completely unregulated. Enslavers in the Upper South maintained agencies and representatives in the Lower South. The seaboard and border states exported an estimated twenty-five thousand enslaved people a year, with Virginia the largest source. Water transport was occasionally used, but more often people were marched overland to markets such as New Orleans and Natchez (the two largest markets), where they commanded prices that at least quadrupled between 1800 and 1860.
These papers document a business partnership between enslavers Bernard Raux, Paul Pascal, and Nathaniel Currier. Documents show enslaved people purchased in Norfolk, Virginia, and transported to slave markets in New Orleans, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi.
See also curatorial file for labels that arrived with this collection and note about collection by William Coolidge Lane, Harvard College librarian.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following three series:
- I. Correspondence
- II. Miscellaneous documents
- III. Bills of sale for slaves, 1828-1835
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Source unknown; possibly a gift of J. P. Morgan (mentioned in a note, in the curatorial file, by William Coolidge Lane, the Harvard College Librarian).
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Processing Information
This finding aid was revised in 2021 to address harmful descriptive language. During that revision, description was changed in file titles. Dehumanizing language was removed and replaced with community recommended terminology, such as “enslaved people” and "enslaver." If you have questions or comments about these revisions, please contact Houghton Library. For more information on reparative archival description at Harvard, see Harvard Library’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description: https://library.harvard.edu/harmful-language-archival-description.
- Title
- Raux, Bernard. Bernard Raux slave trade papers, 1828-1836: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00215
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440
Houghton_Library@harvard.edu