State of Alabama vs Bobb a slave [supplied title]; Alabama Jail Accounting Recording 244 Days of Confinement of an Enslaved Man, with Clothing Charges and Administrative Expenses, Cahaba, Alabama

Cahaba, Alabama, 1854. Single sheet measuring 8 x 7 inches. Some folds. Fine condition.. A stark Alabama slavery document recording the costs associated with the imprisonment of an enslaved man identified only as "Bobb," issued from Dallas County and dated at Cahaba, Alabama, May 17, 1854 (the manuscript date merits careful examination, as a date of 1864 is also possible).

The document preserves a routine piece of county administration the power of which lies largely in its bureaucratic plainness. Written as an itemized account in the case "State of Alabama vs Bobb a slave," the bill records:

"244 Days in Jail at 30c pr day - $73.20
"Committing & Releasing - $1.00
"Bill of clothing furnished - $4.80"

For a total of $79. Below, the sheriff acknowledges payment: "Rec'd from Wm. Jones administrator of the Estate of R. S. McLean deceased, Seventy nine dollars in full of above bill." The document appears signed by the Sheriff of Dallas County and issued at Cahaba, Alabama, then a declining river town that had previously served as Alabama's first capital.

Little survives regarding Bobb himself. No charge is recorded and no explanation accompanies the confinement. 244 days, nearly eight months of imprisonment, is recorded merely as county accounting. Payment by the administrator of the estate of R. S. McLean suggests ownership or estate administration, though the document leaves the circumstances unresolved.

A surviving document preserving the legal and administrative machinery through which slavery operated in antebellum Alabama.