Bolton, Dickens & Co. account book, 1856-1858, 1865

Account book, 1856-1858, kept by the prominent slave trading firm of Bolton, Dickens & Co. of Lexington, Kentucky, with branches in Memphis, Charleston, Natchez, and New Orleans. It chiefly records people purchased and sold by the firm, with entries giving the names of enslaved persons, purchase and selling price, profit, names of suppliers, and occasional remarks. Some persons involved in the firm's recorded transactions were Washington Bolton, Isaac Bolton, Samuel Dickens, and the slave trader G.L. Bumpass. Of additional note is a copy of an 1857 letter to Isaac Bolton, probably written by his brother Washington Bolton while Isaac was in prison awaiting trial for the murder of slave dealer James McMillan of Kentucky following a dispute in Memphis concerning McMillan's sale to Bolton of an enslaved 16-year old boy who was later revealed to be free, and other related documents. The volume was later employed as a day book by "B.B.W." (possibly B.B. Wadell) and contains accounts for the year 1865.