slaveryto
freedom
Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Certificates of Claim
The following items are transcribed or extracted from the "Bedford County Prothonotary and Clerk of Courts Miscellaneous Slave Records," on microfilm number 6586 (LR-278) at the Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg. Because all three claims followed the exact same legal form, we have fully transcribed only the first claim. We have listed extracted data for the other two claims. These are legal copies of the original forms, the originals being supplied to the slaveholders, who took them along with them when they returned to Virginia with the men that they claimed as their property. The president judge of the Fourth Judicial District, which included Bedford, Huntingdon, Mifflin, and Centre Counties, was Judge Jonathan Walker.
Certificate of Claim to Abner Reiley (a negro man)
Filed 5th Nov. 1825
D. Mann Clk.
Pennsylvania Bedford County
Be it remembered that on the fifth day of November AD 1825 before me
the subscriber president Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of said
county John Boyd of
Middleburgh Louden [sic] County State of Virginia having seized & arrested
Abner Reiley a negro charged to be a fugitive from labour & the slave & property
of the said John Boyd. Whereupon the said John Boyd produces witnesses to
wit John B. Hereford and John Adams on the oaths of which witnesses it is
proved to the satisfaction of the subscriber that the said Abner Reiley [two
words unreadable] is the runaway slave and the property of the said John
Boyd all which is hereupon certified accordingly & This certificate thereof
delivered to the said John Boyd. The name of the said negro appears to the
subscriber as above stated of the male sex of the height of five feet three
inches chunky person round full face. The names of the witnesses were as
above stated. The place of residence of the said John Boyd is Middleburg
Louden [sic] County Virginia & the residence of the said witnesses is
Farquiar [sic] County Virginia.
[signed] [copy]
Certificate of Claim to George & Henry
(negro men)
(extracted data)
Filed 5th Nov. 1825
D. Mann Clk.
Extract of data:
Claimant: John Adams, Fauquier County, Virginia
Witnesses: John Boyd and John B. Hereford
Descriptions of Men Claimed as Slaves: "George is of the height
of five feet six inches square built. Henry is of the height of five
feet seven inches spare person."
Certificate
of Claim to Charles Peters (a negro man)
(extracted data)
Filed 5th Nov. 1825
D. Mann Clk.
Extract of data:
Claimant: David M. Sheffield, agent of Noble Beveridge, Middleburg,
Loudoun County, Virginia
Witnesses: John B. Hereford and John Boyd
Descriptions of Man Claimed as Slaves: No description provided.
Now Available to Read
The Year of Jubilee
Vol. 1: Men of God and Vol. 2: Men of Muscle
by George F. Nagle
Both volumes of the Afrolumens book are now
available to read on this site
The Year of Jubilee is the story of Harrisburg'g free African American community, from the era of colonialism and slavery to hard-won freedom.
Volume One, Men of God, covers the turbulent beginnings of this community, from Hercules and the first slaves, the growth of slavery in central Pennsylvania, the Harrisburg area slave plantations, early runaway slaves, to the birth of a free black community. Men of God is a detailed history of Harrisburg's first black entrepreneurs, the early black churches, the first black neighborhoods, and the maturing of the social institutions that supported this vibrant community.
It includes an extensive examination of state and federal laws governing slave ownership and the recovery of runaway slaves, the growth of the colonization movement, anti-colonization efforts, anti-slavery, abolitionism and radical abolitionism. It concludes with the complex relationship between Harrisburg's black and white abolitionists, and details the efforts and activities of each group as they worked separately at first, then learned to cooperate in fighting against slavery. More here
Non-fiction, history. 607 pages, softcover.
Volume
Two, Men of Muscle takes the story from 1850 and the Fugitive Slave
Law of 1850, through the explosive 1850s to the coming of Civil War
to central Pennsylvania. In this volume, Harrisburg's African American
community weathers kidnappings, raids, riots, plots, murders, intimidation,
and the coming of war. Caught between hostile Union soldiers and deadly
Confederate soldiers, they ultimately had to choose between fleeing
or fighting. This is the story of that choice.
Non-fiction, history. 630 pages, softcover.