I'm reading Laura Edwards recent paper on "Trunks, Legal Texts, and the Materiality of Law in the Nineteenth Century." The Journal of the Civil War Era 15, no. 2 (2025): 157-183. The paper examines the ways in which trunks enabled people, including married women and enslaved people, to make claims to ownership even when legal texts did not seem to support those claims.
The paper reminded me of an advertisement in the Virginia Herald that I ran across while doing some research on Fredericksburg in the 1820s.
What struck me about the ad was the line that he took with him "a variety of clothing and his books." I was struck by the fact that in fleeing slavery one of the things he chose to carry with him were books and by the fact that the slaveowner referred to them as "his books" when he could have just said "a variety of clothing and books."
I wish I knew more of this story. Of course there is the big question of what happened to Billy, but would also love to know what books he took with him.
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