Wills

Collection contains the following items, relating primarily to Benjamin Phillips Owens Cohen, a mulatto son of Barnet Cohen: an assignment of land by Patty Blunt to Barnet Cohen (1809); an original and copy of a certificate, signed by Benjamin Sheftall, Levi S. DeLyon, and Israel Abrahams, among others, certifying that Catherine Owens and her children, Barnet O. Cohen and Benjamin P.O. Cohen, were known and recognized in the neighborhood as free persons of color (1810); a bill of sale to Barnet A. Cohen on behalf of Benjamin P.O. Cohen, for a Negro woman, Sarah, and her child, Lina (1822); a bill of sale to Benjamin P.O. Cohen for a Negro infant, Alonzo, presumably his own son (1833); a letter from an attorney to Benjamin P.O. Cohen informing him that slaves can be set free only by an act of the South Carolina legislature on a petition (1840); a legal opinion given to Benjamin P.O. Cohen regarding the freeing of slaves (1844); a copy of an act of South Carolina designed to prevent the freeing of slaves in a will (n.d.); a draft of the will of Benjamin P.O. Cohen in which he leaves to Samuel Cohen, his step-brother, his wife and children who were legally his slaves (1850); a deed of sale to Benjamin P.O. Cohen for a piece of land, approved by his guardian, Moses A. Cohen (1837); a stock certificate signed by M.A. Cohen as treasurer (1866).