| Name | Age | Color or Race | Sex | Role in document |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anderso Mitchell | White | Male | other | |
| [illegible] [illegible] | White | Male | other | |
| Samuel W. Starnes | White | Male | grantor | |
| Mary E. Welborn | White | Female | grantee | |
| Genry | 15 | Black ("negro") | Male | enslaved |
“Bill of Sale”, but more of a gift. This document is particularly faint and hard to read, so interested researchers are encouraged to personally check it. Samuel W. Starnes of Williamson County, Tennessee, transfers “a certain Negro slave named Genry(?) age about fifteen years” to Samuel’s sister Mary E. Welborn of Wilkes County, NC. G-e-n-r in the enslaved’s name are pretty clear, the last letter is not. This document was not a straight transfer of ownership to Mary, however. I believe the dim text places Genry in a “special trust”, with “Anderson Mitchell” and another person as trustees, with the requirement that they make sure Genry is used “for the benefit of Mary E. Welborn and her children”. There is no further information about Genry or his relationships, and I’m going to assume he is in Wilkes County. The North Carolina document was apparently copied from a Tennessee document, and there is a note from Egbert Haworth, a Commissioner in Nashville, Tennessee, saying he knows Samuel Starnes and that the document is legitimate. Document was signed April 21, 1854 and registered January 31, 1855. See also NC.WILS.139.1 for a related “Conveyance of Negros” from Tennessee to Wilkes
