Petition #20184412

Abstract

In his will, Nathan Sanders of Fairfield District, South Carolina, bequeathed a "certain negro Girl called Sarah" to his wife Mary during her lifetime and following her death to his eldest daughter Elizabeth. If Sarah had children, Nathan said, they should go to his second and third daughters. In 1838, after the deaths of Nathan and his two youngest daughters, Mary moved to Alabama. By then, the slave Sarah had four children, and Sarah's daughter Eve also had several children. In 1839 or 1840, one Robert S. Cowan took possession of Eve and her children, by then four in number, "without consideration and a bill of sale," and placed them in the possession of Thomas Hollingsworth. By 1844, Eve had given birth to one more child. Elizabeth Land seeks to nullify the transaction, explaining that Mary was "very old and infirm" and apparently unaware of what she was doing. Neither did she have authority to sell the slaves. Elizabeth and her husband accuse the two men of fraud, and seek to prevent them from transporting the slaves out of the commonwealth. Related documents reveal that by 1848, two of Eve's children were dead: a boy named Bannister was killed falling off a wagon, and a girl, the youngest child, named Francis. The documents also reveal that by 1848, Mary Sanders had married again. Her new husband was Thomas Godfroy.

Result: Granted; appealed; affirmed.

18 people are documented within petition 20184412

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Citation information

Repository: Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama

Subjects