Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the John Bayles Papers #5348-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Historical Collectible Auctions in June 2007 (Acc.100716).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Bayles family.
• Bayles, John, fl. 1820-1831.
• Slave bills of sale--Tennessee.
• Slaveholders--Tennessee.
• Slavery--Tennessee.
• Slaves--Emancipation--Tennessee.
• Slaves--Tennessee.
• Tennessee--History.
• Washington County (Tenn.)--History.
• Women slaves--Tennessee.

John Bayles was a resident of Washington County, Tenn., when he decided in 1820 to grant a slave woman named Jenny (also spelled Jeanny or Ginny) her freedom upon his and his wife's deaths.

The collection contains three documents that relate to a female slave owned by the Bayles family of Washington County, Tenn.: a petition application, circa 1820, signed by John Bayles requesting and receiving the right to free 25-year-old slave Jenny (Jeanny) upon his and his wife's deaths; a Washington County court document, 21 April 1821, detailing the $600 fee that the Bayles family paid to the court for Jenny's freedom; a bill of sale, 18 November 1830, for Jenny (Ginny) and her two children to Isaac Murry. The bill of sale was acknowledged in court on 25 March 1831 and registered at the county clerk's office on 18 October 1831.