LIST OF LANDS, LOTS OF GROUND, WITH THEIR IMPROVEMENTS, DWELLING HOUSES, AND SLAVES, OWNED BY JOHN GLADDING 3D ON THE FIRST DAY OF FEBRUARY A.D. 1814, LYING AND BEING WITHIN THE FIRST DISTRICT OF THE STATE OF RHODE-ISLAND, &C. VIZ. IN THE TOWN OF BRISTOL AND COUNTY OF BRISTOL. LOT OF LAND BOUNDED NORTH ON BURTON STREET, EAST ON LAND OF LEMUEL CLARKE, SOUTH ON LAND OF LEMUEL CLARKE, AND WEST ON LAND OF JOHN GLADDING, JUN., CONTAINING TWENTY RODS.| JOHN GLADDING 3. $130 [On verso: 110. JOHN GLADDING 3RD]

Bristol, RI, 1814. Pre-printed form, 3" x 7-1/2", completed and signed in manuscript. The words "Dwelling Houses, and Slaves" have been crossed out. Light toning, small chip to top blank corner. Very Good.

The Gladdings of Bristol were a large, extended family. Several Gladdings with this name existed around Bristol at this time. Lemuel Clarke, whose land was adjacent to Gladding, was a vestryman of the local Episcopal Church.
The printed form solicits information on "slaves," who-- although Gladding apparently was not a slave owner-- were in bondage in Rhode Island until the total abolition of slavery there in 1842. Before that date, the gradual emancipation law freed children born to slave mothers after 1784. Rhode Island's economy was heavily dependent upon the West Indian trade. Rum was its biggest export.