Mini Lesson: Slave Receipt

The following is a slave receipt from 1800. The language used conveys the disregard that slave traders had for the human beings that they sold. Read the transcription below and then click the picture to view a larger image of the document.


"Received New York, April 15 1800 of Mrs. Sarah M. McComb one hundred and seventy five dollars in full for a Negro woman named Susan aged about thirty three years with her female child about ten months old."

Questions for discussion

1.) What does this document tell you about the institution of slavery in America?
2.) Why do you think the child is not given a name in this document?
3.) This document was written over two hundred years ago. How has America changed regarding race relations since then?
4.) What more would you like to know about Mrs. Sarah McComb?

New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards

6.2.4. A.1 Explain how present events are connected to the past.
6.4.4. A.3 Discuss the reasons why various groups, voluntarily and involuntarily, immigrated to America and New Jersey and describe the problems they encountered.
6.4.8. F.11 Understand the institution of slavery in the United States, resistance to it, and New Jersey’s role in the Underground Railroad.

National Standards

NSS-USH.K-4.3 The history of the United States: democratic principles and values and the people from many cultures who contributed to its cultural, economic, and political heritage. Understands how democratic values came to be, and how they have been exemplified by people, events, and symbols.
Understands the causes and nature of movements of large groups of people into and within the United States, now and long ago.
Understands the folklore and other cultural contributions from various regions of the United States and how they helped to form a national heritage.

NSS-USH.5-12.5 Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Understands the causes of the Civil War
Understands the course and character of the Civil War and its effects on the American people
Understands how various reconstruction plans succeeded or failed

Sources

New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards http://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/2004/

National Social Studies Standards http://www.educationworld.com/standards/national/soc_sci/us_history/5_12.shtml

McComb, Sarah. Lloyd W. Smith Collection. Morristown National Historical Park. 30 Washington Place, Morristown New Jersey 07960. LWS 755.


ML5: Slave Receipt
Mini Lesson by Karyn Pereny