Elizabeth Butler, a widow and mother of four children, seeks compensation for the injuries incurred by her slave, Sam, who broke his leg in 1840 while performing public road work. Butler recounts that she obeyed an order to provide "hands" to "work on the Public highway" and that the said Sam fell while trying to cut "the Branches of a certain Tree overhanging the said public road." Attesting that said slave is "unable to move notwithstanding the best medical treatment," the petitioner "throws herself on the magnanimity & generosity of your Honorable Body for relief" and that "she may be granted compensation for the lost time of said Boy."
Result: Referred to claims committee; rejected.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
