affidavit

Affidavits of good behavior, no. 2.

NOTE: I found these documents before my trip to Aberdeen. They, in fact, spurred me to go.

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I’ve been hunting for digitized evidence of the trade of Wilson County slavers like Wyatt Moye, Robert S. Adams, Stephenton Page Jr., and Joshua Barnes in Aberdeen, Mississippi. I finally found some in a deed book dated 1847-1850. (Wilson County, of course, had not yet formed, but these traders lived or had lived in parts of Edgecombe, Nash, Wayne, or Johnston Counties that are now Wilson County.) These registered affidavits attest to the affiants’ personal acquaintance with an enslaved person who had been sent from North Carolina to Mississippi for further sale.

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Deed Record 13, page 641. Chancery Clerk’s Office, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Know all men by these presents that we Josh. Barnes and Jas. D. Barnes, Citizens & free holders of the County of Edgecomb & State of North Carolina do hereby certify that we are acquainted with negro woman Esther a very black thick set Slave about forty or fifty years of age which Slave Larry D. Farmer sent to Aberdeen, Mississippi, by Robert S. Adams that said Slave has not been guilty or convicted of murder, arson, burglary or felony within our knowledge or belief in said state. Signed with our Seals and dated  Feby 27th 1849.    /s/ Josh. Barnes, Jas. D. Barnes

Deed Record 13, page 642. Chancery Clerk’s Office, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Know all men by these presents that we Josh. Barnes & Jas. D. Barnes Citizens & free holders of the County of Edgecomb & State of North Carolina do hereby certify that we are acquainted with negro Friday a very black fellow about twenty or twenty five years of age rather awkard and a little open mouthed weighs about one hundred & sixty pounds that William Barnes sent to Aberdeen, Mississippi, furthermore that said Slave has not been guilty or convicted of murder, arson, burglary or other felony within our knowledge or belief in said state aforesaid. Signed this 27th day of Feby 1849.    /s/ Josh. Barnes, Jas. D. Barnes

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  • Joshua Barnes
  • James D. Barnes — James Dew Barnes. In the 1860 census of Wilson County, farmer James D. Barnes reported $62,580 in personal property. The 1860 slave schedule reveals that this property included 34 enslaved people.
  • Larry D. Farmer
  • Robert S. Adams — Adams was a partner with Wyatt Moye in the slave-trading firm Moye and Adams.
  • William Barnes — brother of Joshua Barnes.

Documents reproduced at www.familysearch.org.