Confederate Forced Slave Mobilization and Receipt of Slave Impressment During the Final Year of the Civil War, Florida, 1864

Confederate Forced Slave Impressment

Manuscript & Autographs

[Civil War] [African American Military] [Slavery] Unknown official. Slave impressment receipt and certificate, 1865 documents the Confederate government’s forced mobilization of enslaved labor during the final phase of the Civil War under legislation authorizing the use of enslaved people for military purposes. Issued in Florida under the February 17, 1864 Confederate act permitting the impressment of enslaved men for labor supporting the army, the document records the seizure, valuation, and medical inspection of an enslaved man named Henderson. Created in the closing months of the Confederacy, this record places the expansion of coerced Black labor within the broader collapse of Confederate infrastructure, when the government increasingly relied on impressed enslaved individuals to sustain military operations.

Partly printed document completed in manuscript, Florida, 1865. The receipt records “one slave named Henderson, aged 20, color blk, height 5 ft 6 in, weight 149,” identified as the property of W. H. Branch and “appraised at forty five hundred dollars,” with notation that he was “impressed” for twelve months’ service under Confederate authority. The accompanying “Certificate of Appraisement” assigns an additional value of “Clothing $50,” bringing the total valuation to $4550, and includes signatures of multiple officials attesting to the assessment. A “Surgeons’ Certificate” below states that Henderson was examined and found “sound, able-bodied and fit for the required service,” formalizing his eligibility for forced labor within the Confederate military system.

Issued in 1865, this document reflects the Confederacy’s late-war reliance on enslaved labor as military defeat approached, demonstrating how legal and administrative systems were used to extract labor from enslaved people while simultaneously assigning them monetary value as property. Impressment records such as this provide direct evidence of how enslaved individuals were quantified, evaluated, and incorporated into military logistics without agency, linking plantation economies to wartime infrastructure. Fold lines, mild toning, and minor edge wear; manuscript and printed text remain legible. Overall very good condition. The document also illustrates how Confederate authorities translated enslaved lives into measurable labor, linking property valuation directly to military need in the war’s final phase.

Item #23072

Price: $4,800.00