Description of Implements, Terms, Etc
Bound - the purpose was to provide a method of teaching orphaned or poor children with skills to become productive adults; there is some question here as to whether children of color that were apprenticed were actually free persons of color. This particular resource shows that children of free persons of color and free illegitimate children of color were eligible for apprenticeship.
Court Order - this is a generic entry for some type of action that was set by the court
Deeds
Gift; Deed Akn - this was a Deed of Gift where an individual was giving another some sort of property and was acknowledged in court; in most cases the deed can be found and will likely hold additional information
Marriage Contract; Deed Akn - this deed usually was done to secure a woman’s property for her own before she married and was subsequently acknowledged in court
Mortgage; Deed Akn - this is where the grantor has allowed the grantee temporary ownership of some property for a loan; most times this was to be void after payment returned
Quit Claim; Deed Akn or Release; Deed Akn - the grantor in this deed is basically relinquishing any interest or ownership in the property
Sale; Deed Akn - this was a deed that was acknowledged in court, in most cases the deed can be found and will likely hold additional information
Trust; Deed Akn - this was a Deed in Trust which recorded the sale of property to satisfy a debt and was acknowledged in court; in most cases the deed can be found and will likely hold additional information
Dower - the widow of a deceased man was entitled to a certain portion of her husband’s estate and the court would assign a group to value and assign her this property
Emancipation -this was an entry where a person of color was going through the motions of being emancipated or freed from slavery
Estate Return - once an individual died, their estate would be set in a inventory of property, claims of money due and money owed, etc. Inventory of slaves will more than likely be found in the estate papers, but in some instances this inventory was recorded in court
Hire - the estate of an individual may be in the red so to speak, meaning they owed more than they owned at their time of death. This was one reason that slaves would be hired out to others in the community at a price to increase the revenue an estate could produce. Sometimes, slaves who were willed or divided to legatees were also hired out for the purpose of, again, bringing in revenue for the legatee’s estate
Inventory - an entry record for the inventory of the estate, either of a deceased individual or of the property of a legatee of the deceased
Partition -where some property of a deceased person was divided among legatees
Petition for Partition - this was to beg the courts approval to divide estate property of a deceased individual among legatees; in some instances you will be able to find the subsequent entry for how this property was actually divided
Petition to Sell - Much like the entry for hiring slaves, a way for an administrator/executor to pay off debts of the deceased was to sell property including slaves that were not willed otherwise; looking into a deceased individual’s estate records, especially estate sale records, is the best way to find more information
State vs or Suit - this is a court case for some civil or criminal case
Valuation - much like an inventory, this was an entry where a court ordered group would review and assign a value to property
Will - occasionally a will would be recorded in the court minutes and this may indicate where slave property were to be distributed or sold.