Slave Manifest for the Brig Orleans

This manifest shows 41 enslaved people who were shipped to New Orleans, Louisiana, from Richmond, Virginia. Among them was Solomon Northup, who was listed as Plat Hamilton on line 33. A free person of color in New York, Northup had been kidnapped and sold into slavery; he was given the name Plat Hamilton aboard the ship. Years later, after he regained his freedom, he told his life story in his autobiography Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841 and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River in Louisiana.

It had became illegal to import slaves from other countries to the United States in 1808. The domestic slave trade, however, remained legal. With the rise of cotton as a southern commodity, thousands of enslaved people were shipped from the upper south to the lower south regularly from 1808–1860. Slave manifests were required by law for each ship transporting slaves and needed to include every slave's name, sex, height, and complexion or class. In addition, slave manifests required the names of the slave owners or shippers and their residence, plus the names of the individuals the slaves were consigned to if necessary. Two copies of these manifests were required, one would be filed with the customs agent at the port of departure, and the other manifest would be filed at the port of arrival. The customs agents were required to sign these manifests.