Margaret J. Mason, administratrix of her late husband's estate, prays for permission to sell a slave. She informs the court that her husband, William T. Mason, died in 1855, leaving an estate that includes slaves, stock in the Richland Manufactory Company, cash, and other assets. Mason asserts that "most of said slaves are very valuable, & productively employed in the Richland Cotton Mills." She is concerned, however, about a slave named Green, "who is white & could easily pass himself for a white man anywhere." She confides that she "has good reason to believe that said slave is restless & dissatisfied with the condition of slavery, and contemplates an escape." Admitting that should Green try to run away, he would probably succeed, "both from his color and general appearance as from his intelligence & shrewdness." Requesting that the slave be sold, Mason maintains that she would receive a better price for Green if she could take him to Nashville and put him "in the hands of a trader" rather than sell him "at public outcry in this market."
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
