One More Sledd Slave Incident Account

Searches for more on the Sledd who murdered a slave in Bedford County, Virginia around 1810 located an additional reference on GenealogyBank from a newspaper in Pennsylvania. Apparently a politician in South Carolina was going to introduce a bill regarding the "murder of negro[s]." Whether this bill was precipitated by the Sledd incident I'm not certain, but it could not have been the only incident. 

I'm still working on locating the first name of this Sledd individual. I think that I've about exhausted online references and it's time to go to offline sources for more on this story. The newspapers on Genealogybank.com have been extremely helpful, but there are times where other sources need to be utilized. This is one of those times.

Date: Monday, March 4, 1811  

Paper: Washington Reporter (Washington, PA) --obtained on 

Genealogybank.com

Date: Monday, March 4, 1811  

Paper: Washington Reporter (Washington, PA) --obtained on 

Genealogybank.com

I had to split this reference up into two images for posting here. Apparently the Library of Virginia has records of the penitentiary, but records of individual prisoners do not go back this early. Local court records and local newspaper accounts are probably my best bet for additional information. The description of the beating is quite detailed in this newspaper account, including the application of a pepper and tobacco mixture to rub into the wounds.

Stay tuned.

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Reminder--we don't include complete citations on blog posts--just our personal preference. Complete citations are always included in Casefile Clues or you can learn about citations in Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. We always do include enough background information in blog posts that readers can find our original sources.If you think we don't, please fire off an email to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com