Guide to the Papers of John Dipper Freed Slave, Baptist Minister 1816-1838 MG 1127

Descriptive Summary

Access Points

Series 1: Emancipation Documents, 1816-1818, 1830, 1835

Scope and Content:

Arranged chronologically.

This series contains documents relating to John Dipper’s manumission at age thirty-eight by Robert Scott, administrator of the estate of James Cocke. The records document how Dipper came into the possession of Cocke, how he was sold to William Browne following Cocke’s death, and how he was then emancipated the day following the purchase. After attaining his freedom, Dipper went on to purchase his wife Edy and a son. This series contains the records of these purchases, as well as the certificates of freedom he drew up for them. The records also include a register certifying the free status of a six-year-old African-American girl named Kezia; her relationship to John Dipper is not clear.

After gaining his freedom, Dipper left Williamsburg, Virginia and moved north, first to New York City, and ultimately to Red Bank, New Jersey. By the mid-1830s, with a growing concern for his financial arrangements in Williamsburg, Dipper traveled to Virginia. Clearly, he was concerned about returning to the south and traveling there as a free African-American. This series contains the documents that he procured to protect that freedom: a certificate from the state of New York certifying his status as a freeman and citizen of the United States and a certificate issued from Philip Morris, Captain of the Nautilus, granting him leave to travel in Virginia as a member of the vessel’s crew.

Series 2: Correspondence, 1819-1836

Scope and Content:

Arranged chronologically.

This series contains the correspondence of John Dipper, including letters to his second wife, Polly, and letters from his sons, daughter-in-law, and sister-in-law. All of the letters, except two, are incoming, and many of them are from friends and former business colleagues in Williamsburg, where Dipper still had financial or business arrangements. These business letters describe the legal problems that were left unsettled when Dipper moved away from Virginia. One of the letters gives legal advice regarding the suit that was filed against Dipper preventing him from selling his property in Virginia. Another letter, received by Dipper in March 1835 a few weeks before he traveled south with the crew of the Nautilus, makes an unfavorable interpretation of the law governing the admittance of free African-Americans into Virginia.

Series 3: Financial and Legal Documents, 1821-1838

Scope and Content:

Arranged alphabetically by topic or format.

This series contains bills and receipts, an inventory of John Dipper’s movable property, and licenses, one permitting Dipper to carry a gun in Williamsburg and the other to preach at the Baptist Church of Christ in Williamsburg and in the surrounding areas. The series also contains two bonds that reveal that Dipper agreed to hire slaves for a period of more than two years, as well as a certificate that grants him the right “to dispose of my woman Judy” in any manner he sees fit. Finally, the series contains photocopies of legal documents: a deed for land in Red Bank, New Jersey, John Dipper’s will, and the accounts of Edmund Throckmorton, the executor of his will.

Series 4: Notes and Historical Documents

Scope and Content:

Arranged alphabetically by topic or format.

This series includes fragments of a note from one of John Dipper’s sons, a home cure for a disease, a spiritual song beginning “Come all around that wants to see,” and the conclusion of Frelinghuysen’s argument concerning democratic majorities. The dates of the items are not known.