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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Collection Reference Number | GLC09400.008 |
| From Archive Folder | Collection of letters of the first African American to serve a full term in the Senate |
| Title | Partial Will and Testament for Ransom Lee |
| Date | 20 March 1871 |
| Recipient | Kelso Bruce, Blanche |
| Document Type | Business and financial document |
| Content Description | A partial Last Will and Testament from the estate of Ransom Lee, It includes a metes and bounds description of real property. This document states that Susan Lee can live on the estate for the rest of her life, when she dies Thomas Lee and his wife Elizabeth Baker get the land. The document itself has been damaged. It has broken into four pieces at the fold lines, and the docket has been separated. |
| Subjects | African American History African Americans in Government Congress Law Reconstruction Government and Civics Land Transaction Estate Children and Family Death Land Transaction |
| People | Bruce, Blanche Kelso (1841-1898) |
| Place written | Tuscaloosa County, Alabama |
| Theme | Government & Politics; African Americans |
| Sub-collection | The Gilder Lehrman Collection, 1860-1945 |
| Additional Information | Blanche Kelso Bruce was born into slavery near Farmville, Prince Edward County, Va. on March 1 1841. He was tutored by his master's son, but left his master at the beginning of the civil war and taught school in Hannibal Mo. After the civil war Bruce became a planter in Mississippi, and a member of the Mississippi Levee Board, and Sheriff and Tax Collector for Bolivar County from 1872-1875. Bruce was then elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, where he served from March 4 1875 - March 3 1881. Bruce was the first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. In 1881 Bruce was appointed by President James Garfield as the Register of the Treasury. Bruce then went on to serve as the Recorder of Deeds for the District of Colombia from 1891-1893, returning to the office of Register of the Treasury from 1897 until his death on March 17, 1898. |
| Copyright | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |
| Module | Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945 |