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Listen to the exhibit

Click the "play" button to hear a recorded reading of some of the documents

01

Certificate of Manumission for Lloyd Colbert by Phineas Bates and Ambrose Phelps, 1814

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"We Phineas Bates and Ambrose Phelps overseers of the poor of the town of Canandaigua in the county of Ontario & state of New York do certify that a negroe man Slave named Lloyd Colbert commonly called Lloyd now owned by Nathaniel W. Howell who resides in the said town, appears to be under the age of forty five years and of sufficient ability to provide for himself-- Given under our hands at Canandaigua the eighteenth day of October AD. 1814."

02

Obituary Statement of Lloyd Colbert, date unknown

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"Lloyd Colbert--within mentioned died on the 25th May 1866 and was buried on Sunday 27th May 1866. Lloyd repeatedly stated to me that Father got here on 7th December 1812 my birthday and that he was then 27 years old, if he was correct he was born in the year 1785 and was 81 years old when he died."

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03

Excerpt From a Document Titled “An account of the emigration of the Rose and Nicholas Families from Virginia to New York…”, 1901

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"Four four-horse wagons for the colored people and their baggage came with about 75 colored people directly north over the Alleghanies in charge of Col. John Fitzhugh. The men and women who were able, walked. The invalid women and small children rode in the wagons/They went about a half mile together then the whites turned to the right and the blacks to the left and did not meet again until they met in Geneva about the middle of November. The whites came by Albany/The blacks came directly north through Pennsylvania. They had had parties here for two years previously raising crops and making preparations."

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