DEED SIGNED BY BLANCHE K. BRUCE, AMERICA'S FIRST ELECTED BLACK SENATOR TO SERVE A FULL TERM

Partly printed document completed in manuscript. Trustee's Deed signed by Blanche K. Bruce as received for record. Washington, D.C., 30 June 1890. 4 pages, 8 1/2 x 14 1/2 in. With public notary embossment. 

A trustee's deed between Otis Bigelow and William J. Miller as one party and Carter B. Braxton as another. The deed signified the former party selling land through public auction for $385 unto a man coincidentally named Andrew Jackson. What makes this deed especially significant is that it was signed by Blanche K. Bruce, who previously served as the first African American to preside over U.S. Senate prior to his role as recorder of deeds. 

Bruce (1841-1898) was born into slavery — his mother was his father's domestic slave. Although his father was his master, Bruce was treated fairly and received an education from him before leaving home to go to Oberlin College for two years. In 1864, he established a school for Black children in Hannibal, Missouri. Following the Civil War, Bruce moved to northwestern Mississippi, where he became a wealthy landowner, the registrar of voters and tax assessor in Tallahatchie County, and then the sheriff of Bolivar County. He additionally became sergeant-at-arms for the Mississippi State Senate in 1870. 

In February 1874, Bruce became the second African American elected to the Senate — five years later, he became the first African American and the only former slave to preside over the Senate. After his Senate term expired, Bruce stayed in Washington, D.C., where he was appointed by President James Garfield in 1881 as registrar of the Treasury. This earned him the honor of being the first African American whose signature was featured on U.S. paper currency. 

It's unclear when his term as registrar of the Treasury ended, but by 1890 Bruce was serving as the recorder of deeds for D.C., which is when he would have signed this document. He then served as the Treasury's registrar again in 1897, which he would stay in until his death the next year due to complications from diabetes. 

[African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]

Some separation and repairs along creases.