White Women's Lives in Colonial New York
A Woman Writes A Contract to Enslave and to Set Free
Citation: Wendell, Evert Jansen, 1860-1917, collector. Evert Jansen Wendell collection of contracts for the sale of slaves, 1796-1829. Bleecker, Catharine. Contract with Daniel Paris of Canajoharie, New York : AD, Albany, New York, 1796 Feb. 25. MS Am 889.478 (1). Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Know all Men, that I, Catharine Bleecker, of the City and County of Albany, & State of New York; for & in consideration of the sum of Fifty pounds to me in hand paid by Daniel Paris of Canajoharie in the county of Montgomery & state aforsaid; the receipt whereof, I do hereby confess & acknowledge: have bargained, sold, and let, and by these presents, do bargain, sell and let unto the said Daniel Paris, his Executors, Administrators, and assigns[?] for the Term of Eight Years, from the date hereof my Negro man slave Tom, aged about seventeen years. To have and to hold the said Negro man slave Tom, to the said Daniel Paris, his Executors, Administrators & Assigns[?] for an during the said term of Eight years and no longer.----------
And I, the said Catharine Bleecker do hereby manumit and set free, my said Negro man slave Tom at the expiration of eight Years from the date of these presents. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and Seal, this Twenty fifth day of February in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand, seven hundred & ninety six.
This contract marks an agreement between Catharine Bleecker and Daniel Paris. Bleecker writes that for the "sum of fifty pounds to me in hand" she sells the life and labor of her "Negro man slave Tom, aged about seventeen years," for a term of eight years, or, until Tom is 25 years old. The contract goes on to say that at the end of that eight year term, Tom should be "manumit[ted] and set free."
At the time of this contract's signing, all women in the New York colonies had limited rights compared to men. Free women were constrained in their abilities to write contracts, hold property, write wills, or do many of the legal and economic activities that would help to gain wealth and independence. Signing such documents requires a man's permission or participation- usually a father or husband.
Catherina Elmendorf, 1752. By anonymous - This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, Link
The situation was different, however, for widows. It is most likely that the Catharine Bleecker who signed this contract was Catharine Elmendorf Bleecker of Albany, New York. According to a biographical sketch written by Community Historian Stefan Bielinski as part of the New York State Museum's Colonial Albany Social History Project, Bleecker was married in 1768, and left the widowed mother of 11 in 1787. A year later, she was noted as the heir to her husband's estate and the executer of his will. This may have left Bleecker with the freedom to sign her own contracts, which in this case meant the freedom to sign away another person's liberty.
