The American Slavery Collection is an artificial collection compiled from a variety of sources including donations of individual documents and purchases. The thirteen original items in this collection consist of ten bills of sale, one receipt, one document relating to manumission and the autobiography of a former slave who lived in Madison County, KY as a "free black" prior to 1850. There is also one item, a receipt that is probably a handwritten copy made in the early twentieth century. The collection provides primary source material to researchers and documents the slave trade in Kentucky.

The provenance of this material is not currently known [03/18/2005]. Several of the items appear to have been purchased for the Townsend Room Collections as there are clippings that describe the document and give a price. These documents will be indicated as [Purchase] after the description and the clippings will be found in the accession file. These documents have been added to this collection for ease of access and because they have no relevance as part of a larger collection.