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Richard Furman to Wood Furman, 1808"Mr. Baker and myself have both sunk Money this Year in the Planting Business. What his Loss is, I do not know; but I believe mine will not be less than $150, besides the Death of Tom, which you know took place last Winter. It was, however, very Providential that I was at the Hills when the Influenza took place on the Plantation; several of the Negroes being then taken very ill with [hole] that Complaint, which very probably with [ ] Hughs’s Treatment should? [hole] have proved mortal. [...] I believe I informed in my last that we had 17 Persons Baptised [Baptized] at the Communion season in Septr; I have now to add, that 10 more were baptized in Decr. All of these last but one, however, were Negroes...
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Richard Furman to Wood Furman, 1809"In addition to my usual Complaints, I have a violent Cough, attended with soreness of the Throat: It very much resembles the Whooping Cough, and my Friends generally think it is that Complaint; it has existed about 3 Weeks. The Negroes are much unwell, and a Child of Minda’s? died on Monday last. Nanny’s? youngest appears to be in Danger...
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Furman's Legacy of Slavery: A Digital Exhibition: Richard Furman and the Morality of Slavery- Letters
In subtle language, Richard Furman writes to his son, Wood Furman, the way he differentiates Black baptisms from the Whites
“I believe I informed in my last that we had 17 Persons Baptised [Baptized] at the Communion season in Septr; I have now to add, that 10 more were baptized in Decr. [December] All of these last but one, however, were Negroes.”
On Furman's 1809 letter to Wood, he mentions the names of Minda and Nancy, two enslaved persons owned by Furman's mother or the estate of his father. Furman may have used of them on his plantation in High Hills.
According to Richard Furman's letter to his brother Josiah, who lived near High Hills, they both sold nine enslaved persons held in bondage by his father’s estate to pay the mortgages they both had taken out ten years prior on the land and on enslaved laborers. The 1790s were a financially dire period for the Furman brothers.
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Richard Furman to Josiah Furman, 1797"You will please set up and Advertisement at some publick [public] place in your Neighborhood respecting the Sale of Negroes...
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Richard Furman to Dorothea Furman, 1816
"The Negro Clothes arrived in Safety on Tuesday Evening, and were distributed the next Day to the Satisfaction of their Possessors. They seemed to fit as well as if they had been made from their Measure..."