Description

Conveyance from the estate of Andrew Jackson in which the bequest of slaves left in his will to daughter-in-law Sarah Jackson is confirmed. His adopted son, Andrew Jackson, Jr., is conveying those slaves named in Jackson's will to his wife. Included were "one negro woman named Hannah of a yellow complexion aged about 55 years and her children, one a negro boy named George Washington and a negro girl named Mary with her increase. One negro man named Alfred of a yellow complexion aged about 38 years and his wife Grace, a negro woman aged about 35 years with their two children," Augustus, 12, and Sarah, 10. She was also left a "house-servant" named John Fulton, 35, and his wife Rachel, 34, and their three children, Billy, 15, Nelly, 12, and Johnny, 8. Also included were Byron, 32, and his wife, Nancy, 24. Andrew Jackson, Jr. and the Davidson County Clerk F. R. Cheatham signed the document.The reference to "yellow complexion" is a description of these enslaved African Americans based on the antebellum South's fixation on skin color. According to the "one-drop rule," any degree of African American parentage, no matter how remote, put that individual in a lower caste. Even though many enslaved persons had European ancestry, these individuals were deemed black by Southern society and the planter class. These distinctions were made to impose a racial and social hierarchy within the enslaved population as a means of control.

Record Contributed By

Tennesse State Library and Archives

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Tennessee