Black Entrepreneurs
Contract between Solomon Willson and William Skinner, November 17, 1815 (detail)
Queen Anne’s County, to wit: Be it remembered that on the seventeenth day of November in the year 1815 the following Bill of sale was brought to be recorded, to wit:
Know all man by [this document] that I, Solomon Willson free negro of Queen Anne’s County, for and in consideration of the sum of Thirty Dollars Current Money to me in hand paid by William Skinner of Queen Anne’s County, at or before the sealing and delivery of [this document] (the receipt whereof I the said Solomon Willson do hereby acknowledge) have granted, bargained, and sold … unto the said William Skinner … all the goods, household stuff, implements, and furniture particularly mentioned ...
[spelling and punctuation have been modernized]
Solomon Willson was a free mixed-race man in Queen Anne’s County who gained economic success against all the odds. County records show that he purchased a 50-acre farm in 1802, at a time when few people of color amassed such substantial property. He even had white tenants who paid him rent.
But as for many free African Americans, Willson’s prosperity proved tenuous. By 1815 — the date of this manuscript from the Commodore Collection — the farm had been seized to pay debts. The document is a contract between Willson and William Skinner, a white man who was living in a house owned by Willson. Willson agrees to sell Skinner all of the household items at the property, probably to satisfy the same creditors who had caused him to lose his 50-acre farm.
Click "Commodore Collection" below to return to the main page or "Continue" to read more about this topic.