This short account records the hiring out, for one year from March 3, 1842, of five slaves belonging to the estate of John Fornes: David, Dick, Major, Ginney and Rachel. Each was hired to a different household to work for the year, and the hirer owed the estate the amount written beside the name, usually paid at the end of the term. David was hired to Thomas Buck for $116, Dick to “Young Laughinghouse” (probably a son of Lewis Laughinghouse, who bought at the estate sales) for $91.50, and Major, Ginney and Rachel to Charity Fornes for $16, $6 and $2. The total was $231.50.
Account of the hire of David, Dick, Major, Ginney and Rachel, slaves of the estate of John Fornes – March 3, 1842
Transcription notes: spelling, capitalization and punctuation follow the original. Words in [square brackets] are editorial notes; [?] marks an uncertain reading and [illegible] marks words that could not be read.
an account of the hier [hire] of the Negroes belonging to the estate of John Fornes Decd. hiered [hired] out on the 3 day of March 1842 for the turm [term] of twelve Months
David | to | Thomas Buck | $116.00
Dick | to | Young Laughinghouse | 91.50
Major | to | Charity Fornes | 16.00
Ginney | to | dto. [ditto] dto. | 6.00
Rachal [Rachel] | | dto. dto. | 2.00
[Total] 231.50
[The rest of the page is blank.]
About the original
The same five people had been hired out on March 3, 1840, when “Jinney, Dick [and] Rachel” went to Charity Fornes, David (?) to Jesse Fornes and Major to Charity Fornes, for $126.50 in all (see the account of sale of that date), and the estate collected $190.95 in hire in March 1841. Major’s hire rose from $4 in 1840 to $16 in 1842, which suggests he was a boy growing old enough to do more work. Rachel’s $2, and the small sums for Ginney, suggest that they were young children or elderly; a hirer who took a young child or old person often paid little or nothing beyond feeding and clothing them.
Annual hiring on or around New Year’s Day or, as here, early March, was common in eastern North Carolina while an estate was unsettled, and it often separated families for the year. The paper does not say how these five people were related to one another, or what became of them when the estate was divided.
Source: Account of the hire of David, Dick, Major, Ginney and Rachel, slaves of the estate of John Fornes. Roach Family Papers (#346), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, Box 1, Folder b (Inventories, Wills, and Estates, 1783–1868). Collection guide. Digitized folder: ECU Digital Collections, 0346-b1-fb.
Images courtesy of East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University. View in ECU Digital Collections: 35987.
Part of the Roach Family Papers collection on East Carolina Roots.
