Madison County IL Archives Biographies.....Coles, Edward 1786 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Missi Darnell madmiss@aol.com March 31, 2006, 12:31 am Author: Gazeteer of Madison County, published 1866 Edward Coles Excerpt from "Gazeteer of Madison County pub. 1866" Pages 49-50 To the quotations from these early records we add the copy of a document which possesses considerable of personal and historical interest, and bears honorable witness to the existence of elevated and enlightened sentiments on the subject of slavery, based upon principles of justice, among the earliest and most honored citizens of Madison County, of whom she has good right to be proud." Whereas my father, the late John Coles, of the county of Albermarle, in the State of Virginia did in his last will and testament give and bequeath to me certain negro slaves, among others Robert Crawford and his sister Polly Crawford; the said Robert being a mulatto man about five feet seven inches high and now about twenty five years of age; and the said Polly being a mulatto woman about five feet one inch high and now about sixteen or seventeen years of age. And whereas I do not believe that man can have of right a property in his fellow man, but on the contrary, that ALL MANKIND were endowed by nature with equal rights, I do by these presents restore to the said Robert and his sister Polly, that inalienable liberty of which they have been deprived; and I do hereby renounce for me, and my heirs forever, all claim of every description whatsoever to them and their services, and I do hereby emancipate and set free, the said Robert Crawford and his sister Polly Crawford. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this fourth day of July, in the year of Christ one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, and of the independence of the United States the forty third. Edward Coles, {Seal} In the presence of Hail Mason, Jacob Linder. Madison County, State of Illinois: Personally appeared before me, a Justice of the Peace for the County aforesaid, the above named Edward Coles, who acknowledges the foregoing to be his act and deed for the purpose therein mentioned. In testimony whereof, I have Hereunto set my hand and seal this 17th day of November, 1819. Hail Mason, J. P. {Seal} Mr. Coles was born in Albermarle County, Virginia, December 15th, 1786. His father was a rich planter with a large number of slaves, but having ten children, the amount of property received by each was not large. Edward received for his share a plantation and about twenty slaves the slaves constituting about one third of his estate. It was in William and Mary College, under the tuition of the venerable Bishop Madison, that he received the conviction of the wrong and impolicy of negro slavery, and he then formed the resolution, that should he come into possession of this species of property, he would emancipate them. Mr. Coles became Private Secretary for President Madison, and remained for six years an inmate of his family. He was then sent on a special message to Russia, as bearer of dispatches to the American Minister, John Quincy Adams, and previous to returning he made the tour of Europe. On his return he effected a sale of his plantation, and removed his slaves to Illinois in 1819; purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land for each family and superintended their settlement in the vicinity of Edwardsville. Soon after, he was appointed by President Monroe Register of the Land Office at Edwardsville, which office he held until 1822 when he was elected Governor of the State, and as it turned out, at a most important crisis in the history of Illinois. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/madison/bios/coles99gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb