|
|
|
Historical Documents Flora 1796 |
Resource Bank Contents |
The drawing known as Flora is believed to be of a young woman who was sold as a slave in Connecticut in 1796, 12 years after the state had voted for gradual manumission.
According to a bill of sale dated 1796, Asa Benjamin, of Stratford in Fairfield County, purchased a nineteen year old slave named Flora from Margaret Dwight of Milford in New Haven County, for the sum of twenty-five pounds sterling.
Accompanying the bill of sale was a silhouette, drawn on a 14x13-inch piece of cut-paper and colored with brown ink by an unknown and probably untrained artist. The silhouette was likely traced from a candle shadow and then filled in, and may have been sketched specifically for this transaction.
According to the Benjamins' records, Flora died on August 31, 1815.
Image Available At: Stratford Historical Society, Stratford, CT
Part 2: Narrative | Resource Bank Contents | Teacher's Guide
Africans in America: Home | Resource Bank Index | Search | Shop
WGBH | PBS Online | ©