I've heard that folks would contract for, or "rent" the services of slaves from the actual owners. Don't know whether or how that would appear in the records.

My experience is that how this appears depends on the locality and the nature of arrangements. I have seen notes in county records of such contracts. I once came across a document written by a minister as a witness to such a transaction, I presume that his official capacity lent some additional weight to the "contract," but do not know; he might have just been a neighbor. The particular note I referred to was more like a handwritten promissory note. I think it is one of the things that I copied. I'll look for it. (It isn't in my long-lost files, just in my office somewhere.) As kberry mentioned, (I apologize, but I am uncertain as to kberry's first name,) sometimes slaves were given the opportunity to work on the side and make money for their own use or to buy their freedom. I strongly suspect that this was not the case here. --- LHHead2@aol.com wrote: > I've heard that folks would contract for, or "rent" > the services of slaves > from the actual owners. Don't know whether or how > that would appear in the > records. > > > ==== COWAN Mailing List ==== > Messages sent to this list will be archived. Do not > send copyrighted > material or anything that you do not want available > for public viewing > (your name & address, for example). > > ____________________________________________________ Yahoo! Sports Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com