Bill of sale for Esther, enslaved Black woman, 1852

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Title
Bill of sale for Esther, enslaved Black woman, 1852
Creator
  • Knippenberg, John, 1811-1878 [Local]
Collecting Area
  • Local History
Collection Name
  • Local History
Description
Knippenberg sells "a negro woman Esther, about forty-one years of age" to Henry Shaw for four hundred dollars, "to have and to hold the said slave Esther ... free and clear of all claims, sound in mind & body, to be slave for life & title warranted." The deed details how Esther was trafficked by a man named John Brown of St. Louis to Knippenberg's father-in-law, Ludowig Finkman. The bill is signed March 6, 1852 and witnessed by Mary [Hooke?]. The purchaser, Henry Shaw, was the well-known St. Louis philanthropist and founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden. / Handwritten bill of sale of an enslaved person named Esther to Henry Shaw. / "1 folded sheet ; 28 x 37 cm folded to 28 x 19 cm"
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