Manuscript document signed by Elizabeth Brown (by mark). Lincoln County, Kentucky, 4 February 1826. 1 page, folio, 7 7/8 x 12 5/8 in. Undersigned by Matthew Nightingale, Jesse Epperson, and Peter E. Carter. Verso with extensive court docketing dated 6 April 1846. 

An interesting Kentucky will in which a woman bequeaths the nine named individuals she enslaved to her husband. Notably, however, she makes arrangements for three of them to be manumitted after his death: "I give and bequeath to my beloved husband Caleb Brown my Negro woman Winney and her son Sampson and her daughter Betsy during his natural life and at his decease it is my will that all three be Emancipated and set Free."

The will continues, naming the other six enslaved individuals, who were not granted the promise of emancipation: "Also I give and bequeath to my husband as aforesaid my other six negroes (to wit) Fanny, Daniel, Nancy, Kitty, Rachael, & James to him during his natural life, and to be disposed of thereafter as he shall think proper."

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