Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Maryland (1743–1787). Good slavery-content war-dated partial manuscript ADS, signed “Thomas Stone” within the text, one page, 8 x 8.75, no date [c. 1779] Charles County, [Maryland]. A document concerning a legal dispute over the sale of slaves. Stone writes in part, "…Samuel Love…by Thomas Stone his Attorney complains that the said Thomas Reader on the first—day of March—in the year seventeen hundred and seventy nine—at a certain place called the plantation in Charles County…took the said Negro boy Slave called Ned of the price of three thousand pounds Current Money and the said Negro Girl Slave called Henreitta of the price of three thousand pou[nds] current money…and Testament of the said Samuel Love…and the said slaves unjustly detained…" Lightly trimmed edges, and an area of paper loss (and apparent loss of a few words of text) to the lower half of the right edge expertly restored, otherwise fine condition.
From 1774 to 1776, Stone was a member of Maryland's Annapolis Convention, which appointed him as delegate to the Continental Congress in 1775. As a delegate, he voted in favor of the motion to draft a declaration of independence despite Maryland's instructions to vote against it. In June 1775, the Annapolis Convention reversed itself allowing Stone to vote in favor of the Declaration of Independence in July. Material in Stone's hand is quite rare. American Book Prices Current identifies only two ALSs (and one ADS) selling at auction since 1976.
