| Summary: | Slave owners, or their representatives, filed these affidavits with the Montgomery County Judge of Probate to reclaim enslaved people that they owned who had become imprisoned in Montgomery County, Alabama. In most cases, the affidavits provide the name, age, sex, and skin color of an enslaved person. The affidavits also provide the names of the owners of the enslaved persons, and the Alabama counties the owners lived in. In many cases, it appears an owner sent a representative to reclaim an enslaved person. In those instances, the affidavit also contains the representative’s name. In the rare occurrence that the enslaved person’s owner resided outside of Alabama, the affidavit at the least provided the name of the state, and sometimes the community, the owner lived in. This particular affidavit concerns an enslaved man named Wilson who belonged to the Montgomery Eufaula Railroad, John W. Gray, the Montgomery Eufaula Railroad's representative, filled out the affidavit with the Montgomery County, Alabama probate court on July 20, 1861.
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