Lot 72465 – 1821 Slave Document, Middletown, NY, both sides of

1821 Slave Document, Middletown, NY, both sides of an 8X12 page certifying the births of children to slaves, this was required by a New York State law passed March 29, 1799 which called for the gradual manumission of slaves and provided that “all Negro children born of slave parents after July 4, 1799 should be free, but servants of their masters until the age of 28 for men and 25 for women”, according to Middletown: A Biography …“this made it necessary to record the births of all Negro children, the penalty for this neglect was a five dollar fine”… this was supposed to be done within nine months but was often neglected until the owner got around to it, or even when the child came of age to be freed, this document is a list of births of slaves recorded between October 1815 and September 1821, it cost the owners 12 cents each to have them recorded by Stacy Beakes, the town clerk who was an important local businessman and later town postmaster, a scarce and important part of the history of slavery in New York State, minor splitting along one file fold, Very Fine