Joseph W. Robertson to Anson Jones, April 20, 1843

Summary: The letter written by Dr. Robertson to Jones concerning the former's stolen slaves. Robertson wrote that two of his slaves were taken by Indians and ended up in the possession of a Mr. Edwards, who was a white man living with the Cherokee nation. Robertson went to Edwards' house but was unable to locate him and so lodged a complaint with the Secretary of State requesting the recovery of his property.

WASHINGTON [TEXAS] April 20th. 1843

Hon ANSON JONES

DEAR SIR In February 1839 a desc[e]nt was made by a party of Indians upon my plantation on the Colorado River and among other things[s] carried off two negro boys one of them about thirteen or fourteen years old named Manuel the other nine or ten named Aaron and in the fall of 1840 I was told by a Delaware Indian of the name of Frank who is well known from the circumstance of his having a red

head that said boys were in the possession of a Mr Edwards a white man who lived in the Cheroke nation on the Canadian River and had a Creek Indian for a wife. upon the receipt of the above information I went directly to where Edwards was living and found the boys one of them at Edwards and the other at Chisholms who is a Cherokee and the soninlaw of Edwards neither Edwards or Chisholm were at home at the time and I was deterred from letting my business be known from the circumstance of having been cautioned particularly to not let it be known that I was a Texian and there was at that time a party of the Cherokees that had been Driven from Texas encamped in one mile of Edwards and directly on the road that I had to travel. When I arivd[sic] at home I made known to the Hon Secretary of State the whole matter as it then stood and he informed me afterwards that there had been a demand made of the U.S.A. Govt. for the negroes. Since that time I have not heard any thing of the matter except that the negroes are still in Edwards possession. Sir you will please to give me such information as may at any time come to your knowledge so that I can take such steps as is necessary on my part to recover the property

Yours respectfully JOSEPH W. ROBERTSON

Source Copy Consulted: Joseph W. Robertson to Anson Jones, April 20, 1843, in George Garrison, ed., Diplomatic Correspondence of the Republic of Texas, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1908, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911), 3 vols., 2: 177-178