Term Slave Registration, David Breading, 1788

The original slave returns and compiled slave register for Lancaster County are missing. At some point in the last nineteenth century, however, County Commissioner J.B. Eshleman transcribed the entire register for all children born after 1780. It is because of his labors that we know that it was common in Lancaster County for slaveholders to include the name of a child’s mother, thereby seeding the smallest of family trees.

Here we can see that a child named Jane was born on 20 June 1783. Her mother was a woman named Ruth. Ruth had been enslaved before the 1780 gradual abolition law took effect, but secured her freedom after David Breading failed to register her. It appears that Ruth did not learn of her freedom, however, before giving birth to her daughter. As a result, Jane would experience term slavery.