Item #10541 Promissory note from the Petersburg Railroad Co, to pay Tho. Harrison $900 for the hire of 3 negroes. Dated 1st April 1864, signed C. O. Sanford, President. Civil War, Virginia Confederacy. Petersburg Railroad Company.

Promissory note from the Petersburg Railroad Co, to pay Tho. Harrison $900 for the hire of 3 negroes. Dated 1st April 1864, signed C. O. Sanford, President.

1864. Promissory note for the hire of "3 negroes" with Petersburg railroad receipt, on South Side railroad paper, with "South Side" crossed through. Paying the hire of 4 negro men @ $125 each, to Tho. Harrison. Enslaved Africans did much of the work on the Railroad before the end of the Civil War, and this is an example of such.

"The Petersburg Railroad saw much action and destruction during at the end of the American Civil War. During the Civil War, the Petersburg Railroad carried food and equipment to General (CSA) Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The Petersburg Railroad carried supplies south and sometimes carried U.S. prisoners of war. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant severed these rails as part of the effort to cut supply lines to Petersburg for the Siege of Petersburg... Before the end of the Civil War, enslaved Africans did much of the work on the Railroad. In 1864 118 slaves worked on the railroad and only 78 paid employees. Slaves drove the passenger carrying Omnibus and the wagons, worked in the maintenance shops as mechanics and shopmen, worked in the Depots and office, worked at the Clover Hill and other stations, worked as firemen and train hands on the train, worked as section men and repaired tracks, worked on the gravel train shoveling gravel and bringing materials and chopped wood to provide the fuel for the trains... The railroad company owned one slave in 1858 and leased the other slaves." (Wikipedia).

7 3/4 x 2 3/4, blue paper (&) 8 1/2 x 5", white paper. Very good condition. Item #10541

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