Case-K

This advertising token was created for William W. Wilbur in 1840s South Carolina. It is a reminder that human chattel slavery fueled America’s economy in both the North and South. However, that was not the only form of slavery that existed.

The first U.S. Constitution did not ban slavery but allowed the states to decide individually. Territories were controlled by the U.S. before they had statehood and a constitution of their own. The Illinois territory was no exception. One example was in Prairie du Roche, Illinois.  Frenchman Phillipe Renault brought the first 500 bonds people as miners to Randolph County at Fort de Chartres. Bonds people are enslaved through the practice of purchasing individuals with debts, typically inflating those debts and holding that person, sometimes their whole life, passing the debt down to children. William A. Drury was from a prominent family in the village of Prairie Du Roche where he owned bonds people in 1827, including Mary, featured in this letter.  Mary’s ‘debt’ was $78.00, a labor value of $56,800 today.  She paid this amount by working for James L. Lamb in Kaskaskia.  Lamb wrote this contract and receipt. 

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