ABSTRACT
Broadening the pool of documents to include the probate records of all twenty-three 1840s decedents makes it possible to understand the world of the black population during this one decade more fully. The estates of Amy Jackson, Thomas Cole et al. thus now become pieces in a larger picture puzzle, which when assembled conveys a more complete image of the material environment typically experienced by Afro-Americans in antebellum Boston. The probate records of twenty-one decedents thus lend themselves to analysis. With this modest sampling, it is possible to address the issue of occupation and its relationship to the amount and make-up of the estates. Rank ordering the real and personal estates of the twenty-one 1840s decedents, however, reveals immediately that it was much more common for blacks of all occupations in Boston to hold personal rather than real property. Eleven of the twenty-one in the sample possessed no real estate at death, while only one possessed no personal property.
