Slavery Bill of Sale from Antebellum New Orleans for "Alfred, an orphan boy, aged about seven years"

A legal document from antebellum New Orleans recording details about the sale of a 7-year-old slave named Alfred. The original document of which this is a true copy was dated December 18, 1854 in New Orleans, Louisiana; the clerical duplicate dated January 13, 1855 was signed by the Notary Public Adolphe Boudousquié and embossed with his seal on the fourth page. Partly printed and partly handwritten on pale blue legal-sized bifold paper. Expected paper folds and scattered holes corresponding to old folds. A few chipped and darkened edges. Isolated weathering to the last page, else very good to near fine. 8.5" x 13.75."

A New Orleans resident named David McDuffee sold a 7-year-old boy named Alfred to another city resident named Albert Little Abbott for $500. McDuffee had purchased Alfred from three individuals, Thomas Pace, the widow of Thomas Pace, and the wife of Thomas Towns, about one year earlier, in January 1854.

In part:

"In the City of New Orleans, in the state of Louisiana. This Eighteenth day of December eighteen hundred and fifty four and in the seventy ninth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Before me, Adolphe Boudousquié, Notary Public, duly Commissioned and Sworn, in and for this City and the Parish of Orleans, therein residing, and in the presence of the Witnesses hereinafter named and undersined [sic]. Personally came and appeared:

Mr. David McDuffee of this city, Who declared that for and in consideration of the price and sum of Five Hundred Dollars, to him in hand well and truly paid, by Albert Little Abbott, also of this city, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, and acquittance thereof granted… [of] A slave named Alfred, an orphan boy, aged about seven years, lawfully belonging to said vendor by means of purchase…"

The average price of a slave in 1855 was $600. This represented about 6 times more than the average annual salary earned during that period. Slaves fetched higher prices in the "New South," in markets like New Orleans, compared to the "Old South," or the mid-Atlantic states. Even with this inflation, the 7-year-old slave named Alfred would have cost less than an enslaved man in the prime of his youth, or an enslaved woman of child-bearing age. This was because the slave owner had the initial outlay of the care of the boy before it could be recouped upon the slave's reaching working age.

Albert Little Abbott (1823-1901), the man who purchased Alfred, had moved to New Orleans in the 1840s from New England. Abbott became one of the most respected diamond experts in New Orleans, working for more than five decades in a jewelry store on Canal Street, at the edge of the French Quarter. Abbott's obituary recounts that he was also a Free Mason and was actively involved in the construction of the New Orleans and Carrollton Street Railway.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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