Description
An advertisement in the July 23, 1849, edition of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald announces that days auction of the Negro Man Shadrach and Negro Woman Hester and her children, a sheriffs sale to cover the owners unpaid business debts. Shadrach Minkins was sold that day to John A. Higgins of Norfolk, and then sold again four months later to Higginss father-in-law, John DeBree, a career naval officer who lived in Norfolk. Months later, in May 1850, Minkins escaped to Boston.
