Va-Hist Subscribers:

This question on the H-Net North Carolina list has been sent to me with
a request that I post it to Va-Hist and that replies be sent off-line
and privately to: [log in to unmask]

 

Wegner, Ansley

Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 3:50 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: slave amputees

Hello H-NC-ers,

I've had contact from a woman who is researching a female house slave
who is well-documented as a double foot amputee. As a teenager in the
1840s she tried to run away, the family was out of town so the overseer
put her in the stocks overnight-she got frostbite and both feet were
amputated. She lived until 1901.

The researcher is interested in how she would have gotten around. (That
is the one aspect of her life that is not well-documented.) While I can
make hypotheses, I really have not been able to find a similar case. It
occurred to me that a slave double amputee would be a memorable find-so
I thought I would inquire of list members-Have you ever come across a
slave who was a double amputee?

I would be interested in hearing of any antebellum double amputees-free
or enslaved.

Thanks in advance!

Ansley Herring Wegner

Research Historian

North Carolina Office of Archives and History 4610 Mail Service Center
Raleigh NC 27699-4610

<blocked::http://www.lva.virginia.gov/> 


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