Autograph letter signed by Jacob Jones to Dr. G. Y. Holman. Brownsville, [Tennessee], 3 February 1844. 4 pages, 4to. With address panel to integral leaf with Brownsville cancel.

A letter written by farmer Jacob Jones (ca 1809-after 1886) with a detailed description on the prices of hiring and purchasing enslaved individuals: "I write now say something to you about the hire, sale & cause of the rise in negro property. Negro men No. 1 kind from about 80 to 85 dollars + then down according to value. Women No. 1 one without children from 50 to 55$. Women with children from there. Victuals and cloths up to 40$ according to the number of children + the condition of the servant + value I cannot say that this has been a natural change in the market in our country as the prices of negroes remain somewhat stationary, if there is any cause for the rise of negro property, it must be owing to the rise of cotton which you know governs the prices of property in this country; cotton is worth in Brownsville from seven 7 1/2 to 8 + per lb, in N. Orleans from 9 to 10 + Negro fellow No. 1 are worth about 600$ Women No. 1 about 450$."

The author is intimately familiar with both the local prices as well as those in New Orleans. Jones himself owned slaves, 14 individuals in 1850 which increased to 27 by 1860. When Jones was writing, the prices for slave labor were just rising from being at one of the lowest points in the 19th century. Prices had peaked in the 1830s during the cotton boom and had fallen sharply in the early 1840s, but were beginning to rise by 1844 and 1845. (Kotlikoff, The Structure of Slave Prices in New Orleans, 1804 to 1862). 

The rest of the letter concerns the settlement of various accounts and debts, including one regarding slave labor: "In my settlement with Windfield, he said he would not pay the account for negro Tim that the would stand a suit first. I thought rather than be engaged in a law suit for seven dollars I had better give it up, which I hope will meet your approbation." 

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