History Colorado presents archival evidence of enslavement, private letters from territorial Colorado

History Colorado researchers presented previously unreleased archival material on Friday showing that people of African descent were trafficked and enslaved in parts of what would become Colorado in the mid‑19th century.

Dr. Melissa Jones, a History Colorado researcher, told the Joint Committee on the Black Colorado Racial Equity Study that the team found documentary evidence — private letters, census entries and other materials — pointing to enslavement and trafficking between the 1850s and about 1863. Jones said the records include items from the John M. Francisco collection held in the Stephen H. Hart Research Center at History Colorado.

"We have evidence of actual enslavement and the intent to perpetuate the trafficking and enslavement of persons of African descent," Jones said during the presentation. She read a portion of an 1860 private business letter in which the writer asks a business partner to "buy us a good strong ***** woman that can do all kinds of housework and bring or send her with the wagons." The letter is catalogued in History Colorado's collections, Jones said.

Chloe Duplessis, the program manager who introduced the presentation, framed the documents as part of a larger community‑collaborative effort to make names and histories visible. "This is our shared history," Duplessis said, urging the committee to center community knowledge and archival context as the study nears its final phase.

Committee members asked whether the team had documented enslavement after Colorado achieved statehood in 1876. Jones replied that the researchers had not found documentation showing enslaved persons into the statehood period and that most of the evidence the team located dates to before and into the early territorial period, with records extending in her work as late as about 1863.

The presentation included credit to local historians and museum staff who assisted the research, and committee members briefly recessed to view the fragile 1860 letter in person. The commission's historical report remains the central deliverable; staff said the archive excerpts will be incorporated into the final materials to be transmitted per the commission's timetable.