From Sedgefield to South Carolina!
Who was Robert Wright?
Robert Wright was a judge, who once lived in Manor House in Sedgefield, County Durham.
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In 1723 he moved to South Carolina and became an enslaver and rice plantation owner. We want to know more about people like this at this time. So, Robert Wright could be a good place to start to help us to know more about them.
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Source A: An advertisement from South Carolina in 1741.
Image provided courtesy of of Professor Greg Brooking
Transcript from the image above:
To be sold at public auction, on Tuesday the 25th day of June, at the Plantation late of Robert Wright, Esq, deceased, near Dorchester, a parcel of very good Slaves, and sundry other things. Credit will be given till the first Day of Jan, next, paying interest from the Day, and giving Security if required.
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So far, this source is all we have. One line describing people as "a parcel".
To know more about the people that this advertisement describes, we are going to be History Explorers.
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Visit here to find out how, then come back to start your exploration.
Source B
Here is some more information about the people enslaved by Robert Wright.
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At least one ran away. We have a newspaper advertisement that gives valuable information about him.

Source B - A Run Away advertisement from South Carolina, 1737.
Image provided courtesy of of Professor Greg Brooking
Transcript:
RUN AWAY from Robert Wright a well fet Negro Man about 5 Feet 6 Inches high, speaks very good English, his name if Cafar, and formally belonged to Major Wickham, and is supposed to be about Dorchester . Whosoever brings that sad Fellow to Mr. Wm (William?) Roper in Charlestown, shall have 10 l (Pounds?) reward.
A fascinating source
The Run Away ad is a great insight.
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It makes us ask the following:
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Why use the term, 'well fed'? A physical description or an attempt to show his enslaver 'looked after' Cafar?
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Why use, 'speaks good English'? Does this suggest that Cafar's first language was not English? Maybe he spoke an African language as well as English? Maybe he was originally from Africa?
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Who is Mr Wickham? Why would Carfar return to a previous enslaver? What was there that was worth the risk? Did he have family there?
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Who is Mr Roper? Did he work for Robert Wright or was he a 'Slave Catcher', an official whose job it was was to recapture self freed people and return them.
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The reward money was a lot in the 1700's. Does this suggest that Cafar was particularly valuable to Wright? Does this suggest Cafar was skilled in some way?
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Answering those questions, even just considering answers brings us closer to the people in Source A.
Where now?
The term 'parcel' in Source A is dehumanising. We are going to have to be History Explorers to understand more about those people.
1. Primary Evidence - We have this in Source A above.
2. Enquiry Question - we will ask, 'What can we learn about how enslaved people felt about being 'sold'?'
3. Non-corroborative evidence. Below are sources not linked to the people on Robert Wright's South Carolina plantation, but may still be able to help andwer our question.
4. Pause - Question if these sources are helping
5. 'Informed Imagining' - Can you answer your question now.
6. Seek more evidence.
Over to You!
The sources below, although not directly linked, could help us to learn more about the people described as "parcels" in the sources above. Can you put your history explorer skills to the test with them?
Frederick Douglass - Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave 1845
My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result.
The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave by Mary Prince. 1831
Oh, that was a sad sad time! I recollect the day well. Mrs. Pruden came to me and said, "Mary, you will have to go home directly; your master is going to be married, and he means to sell you and two of your sisters to raise money for the wedding." Hearing this I burst out a crying,—though I was then far from being sensible of the full weight of my misfortune, or of the misery that waited for me.
At length the vendue master, who was to offer us for sale like sheep or cattle, arrived, and asked my mother which was the eldest. She said nothing, but pointed to me. He took me by the hand, and led me out into the middle of the street, and, turning me slowly round, exposed me to the view of those who attended the vendue. I was soon surrounded by strange men, who examined and handled me in the same manner that a butcher would a calf or a lamb he was about to purchase, and who talked about my shape and size in like words—as if I could no more understand their meaning than the dumb beasts.