Will

Will, an enslaved man, appears in an 1856 list of proctor drafts appearing in the Journal of the Board of Trustees, which is held in Archives and Special Collections, J. D. Williams Library, University of Mississippi. On September 12, 1856, the University paid $11.25 for the services he had performed. He was specifically referenced as “Wendle’s Will,” which suggests that his master’s last name at the time was Wendle.

Rather than the typical description of moneys paid to a slaveholder for slave hire, Will received payment directly from the University for making repairs. In such circumstances, enslaved people would have been expected to carry and deliver the money they received to their masters for the work they themselves had performed at the University.

See Journal of the Board of Trustees, 1845–1860, Florence E. Campbell Transcription, 328. Archives and Special Collections, J. D. Williams Library, University of Mississippi.

Profile written by Anne Twitty