Kinzie and Forsyth. Indenture of Jeffrey Nash, 1804

Scope and Contents: This indenture, signed on May 22, 1804, bound Jeffrey Nash, a "Negro man," to serve John Kinzie and Thomas Forsyth, "Merchants of Chicago," for seven years. Nash was actually regarded as a slave until subsequent litigation held otherwise, as explained in Milo M. Quaife, Chicago and the Old Northwest (1913), 150-52.This item is a typescript of the original indenture in the Forsyth Papers in the Draper Manuscripts of the Wisconsin Historical Society.