On 12 July 1822 President James Monroe and George IV, king of Great Britain, agreed to refer their differences over the meaning of Article I of the 24 Dec. 1814 Treaty of Ghent to Alexander I, emperor of Russia. That provision stipulated that property taken by either party during the War of 1812 “shall be restored without delay.” The two nations disagreed, however, on the reparations due the United States for slaves who had been removed by the British. Alexander I decided that the United States was entitled to compensation from Great Britain for “all the slaves that the British forces may have carried away from places and territories of which the Treaty stipulates the restitution.” To determine the amount of compensation due, each country appointed a commissioner and an arbitrator. President Monroe appointed Langdon Cheves as commissioner for the United States and Henry Seawell as arbitrator. In August 1823 they met in Washington, D.C., with their British counterparts to ascertain the average value of slaves in 1815 (Hunter Miller, ed., Treaties and other International Acts of the United States of America [1931–48], 2:574–5; “Estimates of the Value of Slaves, 1815,” American Historical Review 19 [1914]: 813–5).

Early in February 1824 Garrett, acting as clerk of the Albemarle County Court, collected from residents of the county a set of affidavits attesting to the prices at which they had purchased or sold slaves between 1813 and 1818. On 3 Feb. 1824 William Garland stated that in 1813 he paid “four hundred dollars cash” for men, $425 for boys, $350 for women, and $325 for girls. He had purchased some of these slaves “for the express purpose of selling again for profit,” and he sold the men and boys for $1,000 each in 1817 and the women and girls for $800 apiece. John M. Perry related that he sold “a negro man, named Watson,” in 1814 for $500, purchased “a negro girl about twelve years of age” for $450 in 1816, and reported that “since the above sales say the years 1817. & 1818,” men and boys sold for “about $1000” and women and girls “about in proportion.” Dabney Minor testified that in 1818, while acting as “friend & agent” for Hetty Carr, for a total of $4,500 he sold “a man, his wife and five children,” the oldest being fourteen years of age and the youngest “12 or 18 months.” In 1815 he sold “a woman about 42 & her child 12 months old for $500. cash.” In 1816 Opie Norris sold “for cash negro men, for $750. boys for $800 women for $500 & girls for $500.” In the following year the prices he obtained were “for men from $900. to $1000. boys from $750. to $1000, women from $750 to $800. girls from $750. to $800.” Jonathan B. Carr purchased from Hetty Carr in 1818 a man, his wife, and child “for the sum of $1350 on a credit of Twelve months.” In the previous year he sold a fifteen-year-old girl for $400. Because she was sold for misconduct, the price was considered “a great Bargain” for the buyer. Still on 3 Feb. 1824, Nelson Barksdale, Francis B. Dyer, William Woods, Rice W. Wood, John R. Jones, Dabney Minor, and Samuel Carr certified that, to the best of their recollection, the prices of slaves as stated in the certificates of Garland, Norris, and Perry represented the common amounts for purchase and sale at the time. As requested above, TJ added his own statement vouching for the respectability of these signatories: “Albemarle county to wit   The persons who have signed the above certificate are residents of this county, are known to me personally as well as by character, are among the most respectable citizens of the county and are worthy of entire credit. Given under my hand at Monticello in the county aforesaid this 5th day of February 1824.” Finally, John Winn certified on 6 Feb. 1824 that in January 1816, as executor of the deceased John Winn, of Hanover County, he sold at public auction eighteen slaves, “consisting of men women, boys and girls, of various ages from sixty years to about twelve years of age,” at an average price of $470. In 1811 he “purchased a boy 10 years old for $250” and in 1813 “a boy 10 years old for $460” (MS in DNA: RG 76, RBCCA; in various hands, with TJ’s certificate and signature in his own hand; endorsed: “Evidence from Albemarle of sundry persons. Examd—Submitted to the Board of Comrs under the Convention of St Petersburg”).