Tax record book kept by Hugh Torrance

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

Leather bound volume containing tax records of enslaver Hugh Torrance including years from 1852 to 1864. The text "Hugh Torrance / Tax Book" is handwritten in black ink on the front cover. The approximately twenty (20) interior pages are ruled and filled out with handwritten records in graphite and black ink. Information includes the taxable property of Torrance and some others, including enslaved people and taxes paid to the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. A child named Minnie May Wellford appears to have later used the book to practice penmanship, with her name and a Memphis address written in graphite on the back pages. Some pages are loose from the binding and at least one appears to be out of the original order.

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