Description
- Abstract:
- Confession of Sharp, a slave, to stealing a box of spermaceti candles from the Brown brothers' Fox Point candle works. Dated September 28, 1764, the document presents a host of interpretive problems. Given that Sharp was illiterate - the confession ends with a mark rather than a signature - the document was clearly written by someone else. As for the sentiments expressed, they likewise appear to have been imposed on Sharp by his owners, who treated the theft in distinctly moralistic terms. In the statement, Sharp not only pledges to make good any financial losses to his owners, but also asks "their Forgiveness in a most publick manner for the many Reflections I have cast on their Characters, thro this unhappy affair."
Access Conditions
- Rights
- No Copyright - United States
- Restrictions on Use
- Collection is open for research.
Citation
Sharp,
"Confession of Sharp:
September 28, 1764
"
(1764).
Voyage of the Sally, Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:303698/
Relations
Has Parts:
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Confession of Sharp: September 28, 1764
- Type: Page-Image
- Order: 1
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Confession of Sharp: September 28, 1764
- Type: Page-Image
- Order: 2
Collections:
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Voyage of the Sally
...Documentary evidence of the first slave trading voyage sponsored by the Brown brothers of Providence, RI. This project arose from the work of the Brown University Committee on Slavery and Justice, led by James Campbell. The committee investigated the contributions …
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Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice
An archive of a wide array of historical documents, from the records of slaving voyages to student commencement orations, digitized in support of the work of the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice. The collection contains over one hundred …...