Item #42151 MORGAN COUNTY CONTRACT OF INDENTURE BETWEEN ILLINOIS JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, AND DANIEL AND DEBORAH SMEDLEY OF MORGAN COUNTY, TO WHOM IS PLACED "AN INFANT NEGRO BOY COMMONLY CALLED WILLIAM ALIAS WILLIAM BAKER TWELVE YEARS OLD THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF JULY EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR, AS AN APPRENTICE TO THE BUSINESS OF FARMING UNTILL HE SHALL ARRIVE AT THE AGE OF TWENTY ONE YEARS, TO WIT, UNTILL THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF JULY EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE, AND DO COVENANT AND AGREE THAT SAID WILLIAM SHALL FAITHFULLY SERVE SAID PARTIES. . . AS A FARMING SERVANT AND THAT HE SHALL OBEY ALL THE LAWFUL COMMANDS OF SAID PARTIES AND SHALL STRICTLY PERFORM ALL THE DUTIES WHICH MAY DEVOLVE UPON HIM TOUCHING THE SERVICE AFORESAID." IN EXCHANGE, THE SMEDLEYS SHALL "FURNISH THE SAID WILLIAM WITH FIT AND SUITABLE CLOTHING, FOOD AND LODGING AND THAT THEY WILL TREAT HIM WITH HUMANITY AND CAUSE HIM TO BE TAUGHT TO READ AND FURNISH HIM AT THE EXPIRATION OF HIS TIME OF SERVICE WITH TWO NEW SUITS OF CLOTHING SUITABLE TO HIS CONDITION AND A NEW BIBLE.". Illinois Indentured Servitude.
MORGAN COUNTY CONTRACT OF INDENTURE BETWEEN ILLINOIS JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, AND DANIEL AND DEBORAH SMEDLEY OF MORGAN COUNTY, TO WHOM IS PLACED "AN INFANT NEGRO BOY COMMONLY CALLED WILLIAM ALIAS WILLIAM BAKER TWELVE YEARS OLD THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF JULY EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR, AS AN APPRENTICE TO THE BUSINESS OF FARMING UNTILL HE SHALL ARRIVE AT THE AGE OF TWENTY ONE YEARS, TO WIT, UNTILL THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF JULY EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE, AND DO COVENANT AND AGREE THAT SAID WILLIAM SHALL FAITHFULLY SERVE SAID PARTIES. . . AS A FARMING SERVANT AND THAT HE SHALL OBEY ALL THE LAWFUL COMMANDS OF SAID PARTIES AND SHALL STRICTLY PERFORM ALL THE DUTIES WHICH MAY DEVOLVE UPON HIM TOUCHING THE SERVICE AFORESAID." IN EXCHANGE, THE SMEDLEYS SHALL "FURNISH THE SAID WILLIAM WITH FIT AND SUITABLE CLOTHING, FOOD AND LODGING AND THAT THEY WILL TREAT HIM WITH HUMANITY AND CAUSE HIM TO BE TAUGHT TO READ AND FURNISH HIM AT THE EXPIRATION OF HIS TIME OF SERVICE WITH TWO NEW SUITS OF CLOTHING SUITABLE TO HIS CONDITION AND A NEW BIBLE."
MORGAN COUNTY CONTRACT OF INDENTURE BETWEEN ILLINOIS JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, AND DANIEL AND DEBORAH SMEDLEY OF MORGAN COUNTY, TO WHOM IS PLACED "AN INFANT NEGRO BOY COMMONLY CALLED WILLIAM ALIAS WILLIAM BAKER TWELVE YEARS OLD THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF JULY EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR, AS AN APPRENTICE TO THE BUSINESS OF FARMING UNTILL HE SHALL ARRIVE AT THE AGE OF TWENTY ONE YEARS, TO WIT, UNTILL THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF JULY EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE, AND DO COVENANT AND AGREE THAT SAID WILLIAM SHALL FAITHFULLY SERVE SAID PARTIES. . . AS A FARMING SERVANT AND THAT HE SHALL OBEY ALL THE LAWFUL COMMANDS OF SAID PARTIES AND SHALL STRICTLY PERFORM ALL THE DUTIES WHICH MAY DEVOLVE UPON HIM TOUCHING THE SERVICE AFORESAID." IN EXCHANGE, THE SMEDLEYS SHALL "FURNISH THE SAID WILLIAM WITH FIT AND SUITABLE CLOTHING, FOOD AND LODGING AND THAT THEY WILL TREAT HIM WITH HUMANITY AND CAUSE HIM TO BE TAUGHT TO READ AND FURNISH HIM AT THE EXPIRATION OF HIS TIME OF SERVICE WITH TWO NEW SUITS OF CLOTHING SUITABLE TO HIS CONDITION AND A NEW BIBLE."

MORGAN COUNTY CONTRACT OF INDENTURE BETWEEN ILLINOIS JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, AND DANIEL AND DEBORAH SMEDLEY OF MORGAN COUNTY, TO WHOM IS PLACED "AN INFANT NEGRO BOY COMMONLY CALLED WILLIAM ALIAS WILLIAM BAKER TWELVE YEARS OLD THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF JULY EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR, AS AN APPRENTICE TO THE BUSINESS OF FARMING UNTILL HE SHALL ARRIVE AT THE AGE OF TWENTY ONE YEARS, TO WIT, UNTILL THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF JULY EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE, AND DO COVENANT AND AGREE THAT SAID WILLIAM SHALL FAITHFULLY SERVE SAID PARTIES. . . AS A FARMING SERVANT AND THAT HE SHALL OBEY ALL THE LAWFUL COMMANDS OF SAID PARTIES AND SHALL STRICTLY PERFORM ALL THE DUTIES WHICH MAY DEVOLVE UPON HIM TOUCHING THE SERVICE AFORESAID." IN EXCHANGE, THE SMEDLEYS SHALL "FURNISH THE SAID WILLIAM WITH FIT AND SUITABLE CLOTHING, FOOD AND LODGING AND THAT THEY WILL TREAT HIM WITH HUMANITY AND CAUSE HIM TO BE TAUGHT TO READ AND FURNISH HIM AT THE EXPIRATION OF HIS TIME OF SERVICE WITH TWO NEW SUITS OF CLOTHING SUITABLE TO HIS CONDITION AND A NEW BIBLE."

Morgan County, Illinois: 1846 and 1847. Folio sheet, folded to [4] pages, each page 7-1/2" x 12-1/4." Contract is printed on page [1] and three lines on page [2], followed by the signatures of two Illinois Justices of the Peace [George Rearick and Mathew Stacy], Daniel Smedley, and Deborah Smedley ["her mark"]. Page 3 is blank; Docketed on page [4]. Old folds, Very Good,.

Morgan County is about 220 miles southwest of Chicago, in the west central part of the State. Its county seat is Jacksonville which, during the middle 19th century, became a center of abolition sentiment and part of the underground railroad route. Although Slavery had been prohibited in Illinois by virtue of the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, substantial support for that institution still existed, particularly in the southern part of the State.
This contract was approved by Justice of the Peace David Henderson pursuant to the 1827 Illinois "Act Concerning Minors, Orphans, and Guardians." The Act made it the "duty" of probate courts to appoint guardians for minor orphans.
Born in Kentucky, Owen Long (1809-1832) was a physician. He moved to Jacksonville about 1840. During the War, he was surgeon of the 11th Illinois Infantry, as the medical director for General Grant's Corps at Cairo, and Director of the Overton General Hospital in Memphis. After the War President Grant appointed him as consul to Panama. Item #42151

Price: $2,500.00

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