As a Ruffner, this is an interesting document because the sale is by Richard Taliaferro. Taliaferro seems an unusual name but it was the middle name of Booker T. (Taliaferro) Washington who was born some 60 years following this sale and was educated by the Ruffners in Charleston, VA. Booker T. mentions in his book "Up From Slavery" the Taliaferro name given him by his mother. Booker says "Later in my life I found that my mother had given me the name of 'Booker Taliaferro' soon after I was born. . . . I have heard reports to the effect that [my father] was a white man who lived on one of the near-by plantations". He continues, "My mother's husband, who was the stepfather of my brother John and myself, did not belong to the same owner as did my mother. . . it seems [my stepfather] found his way into the new state of West Virginia. . . he sent for my mother to come to the Kanawha Valley, in West Virginia". Could this Richard Taliaferro, a slave owner from Orange County, Virginia, his descendents, or this slave Moses (or his descendents) have been associated somehow with the mother, father, or stepfather of Booker T.? Why the middle name of Taliaferro and why the ultimate connection with the Ruffners in the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia? We'll probably never know.
The document reads as follows:
I Richard Taliaferro of the County of Orange and State of Virginia doth bargain and sell against all claim or claims a negroe fellow called Moses as witness my hand and seal this 4th day . . . 1796
Richard H. Taliaferro
Test
William Willis
William Procter
Revised July 2000
Copyright Bill Myers July 2000