NSU students and project staff are searching the records of New Orleans Notary Publics for records of the sales of enslaved people. Unlike in the rest of the United States, sales of enslaved people in Louisiana were registered with the county notaries public and are listed in the notarial records along with sales of land, mortgages, disputes, marriages, divorces and estate assessments. The records are available through the Orleans Parish Civil Clerk of Court and have been digitized and are available online through any FamilySearch Affiliate Library.
How to read a Notary Public Record
Notary public record diagram
Click on areas of the document to learn about how the notary public records are organized.
page number
This is the page number of the transaction record.
Index information
This block contains basic information about this transaction record. It tells us the type of transaction (Sale), the buyer and seller (J.B. Diggs to Edmound Souviat Dufossat) and the date (12 May 1828).
Price
Three hundred and fifty dollars
Buyer information
This lists the name and residence of the buyer: Edmond Soviet Dufossat of the parish of New Orleans, Louisiana
Enslaved person
This section lists the identity of the enslaved person being sold in this record: a mulatress slave named Sophia aged about fifteen years.
Seller’s information
This contains the information relating to the seller of the enslaved person: James Barnes Diggs of Norfolk in the state of Virginia.
Legalese
the passage reads:
“free from all incumbrances as appears from the certificate of the conservator of mortgages of this city dated this day and deposited in the office of Carlile Pollack, notary public, and his hereby warranted against the vices and maladies prescribed by law.
To have and to hold the said slave to the said purchaser, his heirs and assigns forever.
And the said seller for himself and his heirs, the said slave to the said purchaser, his heirs and assigns, shall and will forever warrant and defend against the lawful claims of all persons whomsoever by these present.
Done and passed at New Orleans in presence of Jean Marie Castenade and William Lake, witnesses, who have signed their names with the appeared and with the notary, this twelfth day of May eighteen hundred and twenty eight.”
Signatures
These are the signatures of the seller, buyer, witnesses and notary.