1860 CHARLESTON TAX RECEIPT ISSUED TO FREE BLACK MAN AND SLAVEOWNER

Partly printed receipt, completed in manuscript. Signed by city treasurer A. Campbell. Charleston, [South Carolina], 3 July 1860. 5 1/8 x 2 5/8 in.

Francis Carmand, a free person of color in Charleston, South Carolina, was recorded in the 1850 slave schedule as the owner of four enslaved individuals ranging in age from 14 to 50. His presence reflects the complex and often paradoxical social structure of antebellum Charleston, where a small but significant population of free Black residents could, in certain cases, participate in the institution of slavery.

The present document is a tax receipt issued to the estate of Carmand, acknowledging payment of a corporation tax to the city. Notably, the receipt is marked “FPC,” denoting “Free Person of Color,” a designation that represents both Carmand’s legal status and the rigid racial classifications of the period.

Following Carmand’s death, his widow, Charlotte Carmand, inherited the enslaved individuals. As documented in Larry Koger’s Black Slaveowners (p. 93), her management of this human property could be severe. In December 1856, she confined an enslaved woman named Rebecca in Charleston’s workhouse out of fear that she might flee upon learning of her impending sale. After the sale was completed, Rebecca was released and transferred to a new owner. The Charleston workhouse, notorious for its harsh conditions, was routinely used to discipline and punish enslaved people, often with brutal consequences.

Surviving documents relating to Charleston’s free Black community are rare. 

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