[Manuscript Document Regarding Slavery in Mississippi Territory]

Madison County, Ms: May 12, 1815. About very good.. [2]pp. on a single folio sheet. Old stains and toning, original folds. An early-19th century manuscript document pertaining to the estate of William Jones in territorial Mississippi. The document concerns the dispersal of Jones's property, including one of his slaves. The document stipulates that the plantation should be left to Jones's nephew and eventually apportioned for him, but that all property on the plantation should be reserved for the nephew until he reached the age of twenty-one. The slave is a different matter: "He said he gave to his nephew William Jones who was present...all the property he had in the country except a negro boy by the name of John which boy he said he had given to John Howson." The present document is noted at the end as a "true copy" of the original 1812 document by W.H. Winston, who also attested to the original. William H. Winston was an adjutant in the 7th Regiment of the Mississippi Territorial Militia (Perkins Battalion). An early Mississippi slave document that is older than the state itself.