TY - JOUR AU - Hare, Sara PY - 2010/04/26 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF A SLAVE OWNER JF - TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology JA - TRAILS VL - IS - SE - DO - UR - https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/the-last-will-and-testament-of-a-slave-owner SP - AB - I use a Last Will and Testament as a primary document to give students a first hand account of family life for slaves and slave-owners in the antebellum south. This is the Will of my great-great grandfather, filed on February 20, 1865. I explain to the class beforehand that I am not at all proud that my ancestor was a slave-owner. After reading the will, I ask students to discuss what we can gather about the social context of these families. The first thing that students mention is how unnerving it is to see in print that specific human beings were inherited as pieces of property. Students also notice the difference in status denoted simply by the individuals’ names: the white descendents are listed with their full, formal names while the slaves rarely have full names, and are frequently listed as a nickname. The students do note that the Will does keeps families intact, however. We discuss the economy by cataloguing the possessions that were owned by the white family. As students will notice, most of the white family’s wealth was in the form of slaves. Many students have even counted the specific number of slaves. We discuss the gender issues. Students are pleased to realize that, while the Will bequeaths slaves to his children "to have and to hold forever," the slaves were soon to be freed. ER -