2-949-874 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Certification of witnesses that Laurens was worth $2,000, 1863-04-06. The slave-owner, T. (or J.) Warren Nelson, petitioned for compensation for his slave who was pressed into military service during the US Civil War. 'Clarendon Dist. This is to certify that we the undersigned knew Laurens, slave of J. Warren Nelson of...South Carolina, and believe him to have been worth $2000 dollars...'. Laurens was impressed '...to work for one month on the military fortifications at or near Charleston [in South Carolina]...the said slave at the time of his impressment was about 20 years old, sound and healthy and a very valuable blacksmith...he was retained in the service of the Confederate States...during which time...he sickened and died of Congestive fever...'.