Coale general store ledger

This collection contains a colonial Maryland general store ledger kept by William and Thomas Coale at Elkridge Landing with entries from April 29, 1766 to 1797, though the bulk of the entries ends around 1782. Enclosed within the ledger is an "alphabet book" listing customer names and the pages on which their accounts appear. Many prominent Maryland families are listed such as the Dorseys, Ridgelys, Riggs, Warfields, and Howards.

Goods sold--with payments coming in cash, tobacco, wheat, or other agricultural products--include tobacco, Indian corn, oats, sheep, rum, sugar, Indigo blue, various household tools, clothing, Irish linen, and other “sunderies.” The ledger also contains accounts for various services such as making boots, shoes and clothing, repairs of buildings, curing horse of “pole evil”, and "finding Negro James."

Numerous references to African Americans are found throughout the ledger such as "Cash paid Negro Charles" in the account for Captain Charles Worthington. Additionally, the last page of the ledger, entitled “Memo of the Ages of Sundery Negroes,” lists the names and birthdays of children born to various named women from 1747-1805.