American Historical Ephemera and Photography

A group of 8 manuscript bills of sale, spanning ca 1850-1855, all recording payment from Thomas Dixon to various enslavers for the purchase of enslaved men, women, and children. The earliest document bears the pencil notation "1850" which was seemingly added at a later date, but the others record specific dates along with the name, gender, and price paid. Among the enslaved persons identified are "Loocy" age fourteen, "Jane" about ten years old, "Jim" about twenty-one years, "Harriet about fourteen years of age," "Dinah, aged seventeen," "Eugene infant," and "Rachel" age 40. The bills of sale together document that Dixon purchased at least twelve enslaved persons for a total of nearly $9,000 over the five year period.

[With:] State of Georgia land grant plat for "two hundred two and a half acres" in the county of Muscogee which were surveyed on 4 December 1826. -- A Georgia bill of exchange for $3,000, Mason County, 23 April 1834. -- Manuscript eulogy for "Bro. Thomas Dixon," n.d. [ca 1879], signed "Pastor." -- A newspaper clipping, [1879], relaying news of the death of "Mr. Thomas Dixon." -- Two warranty deeds, dated 1908 and 1919, respectively, one transferring property to "Thos. A. Dixon," presumably a descendant of Thomas Dixon (1815-1879).

According to the manuscript obituary which accompanies the bills of sale, Thomas Dixon "started life a poor boy" when he was born in North Carolina, and relocated to Macon County, Georgia, in 1827, perhaps taking advantage of land made available by the forcible removal of the Cherokee Indians. Georgia newspapers from the 1840s and 1850s indicate that Dixon became involved in local government, assuming the roles of constable, deputy sheriff, and sheriff for Macon County. The 1850 U.S. Federal Census Slave Schedule indicates that Dixon enslaved one woman, age 27, yet by 1860 the U.S. Census indicates that he enslaved 18 men, women, and children. The bills of sale offered here, which all date to the 1850s, coincide with the dates from the Slave Schedules, demonstrating an apparent increase in Dixon's wealth during the 1850s which was utilized, at least in part, to enslave more African Americans.