Isaac T. Preston presents to the court that William Zabrisky, a free man of color, fraudulently "dispossessed" him of his two slaves, twenty-one-year-old Judea and fourteen-year-old Joe. Preston alleges that Zabrisky entered his house and enticed his slaves to leave, intending to take them into his possession. He claims to have amicably asked Zabrisky to restore the slaves, but Zabrisky has refused to do so. He therefore asks the court to sequester the slaves pending resolution of the suit and, after due delay, to condemn Zabrisky to return the slaves and pay him $2,000 in damages. Related testimonies and the conclusions of the related judgment reveal that Zabrisky and Preston had entered into a tentative agreement to trade slaves on a trial basis. Zabrisky would exchange Judea and Joe for Preston's three slaves, Melissa and her two children. Zabrisky, however, decided not to complete the deal and to end the experiment; upon Preston's resistance to return Judea and Joe, he took matters in his own hands.
Result: Denied; appealed; reversed.
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Repository: University of New Orleans
