Heading: (Africa-American)
Author: Calder, George
Title: Letter detailing the value of slaves who were to be sold
Place Published: Aiken, South Carolina
Publisher:
Date Published: July 27, 1859
Description:

Autograph Letter Signed. 2 pp. To G. B. Browne.

"...As regards the price of the negroes Father thinks they ought to bring at least 2000 - when they are sold, place the amt to Fathers credit in the RR Bank and send statement of sale, also a blank Power of Attorney, to enable Mr. H to transfer the stock...Father continues to improve...Father does not trust Mr. Heyward as to price of negroes but only thinks they ought to bring the price stated...."

26 year-old George Calder's father William, an immigrant from Scotland, was a director of the Bank of South Carolina; he may also have owned a hotel in Charleston. One Henry Calder, possibly the grandfather, died in 1820, leaving an estate that included 167 slaves. It's likely that the estate was much smaller by 1859, when William was seriously ill and probably thinking of what would become of his wealth after his death. (If census records are correct, ironicaly, both father and son died the following year, as Secession loomed) The Mr. Heyward, whose estimate of slave value the Calders mistrusted, was probably a scion of the largest slave-owning family in South Carolina - and the richest in the entire antebellum South.

Very good.