Samuel Holman, a free man of color, asks that Anthony Chanet, his attorney and agent, account for his actions while Holman was in Africa. Holman states that Chanet charged him $8236 for "sundry supplies of the domestic Kind" in 1805; "having no suspicion then that the sum was incorrect and unjust," he "executed the said Chanet a Mortgage of Forty Two Negroes." In the fall of 1805, Holman entered into an agreement with Frederick Tavel for a "joint voyage to the Coast of Africa," with Tavel advancing the necessary funds for said trip. To secure his debt to Tavel, Holman executed a "a simple Indemnity bond" for $12,000 that was secured by "the same Forty Two Negroes already mentioned as having been ... mortgaged to Anthony Chanet." Prior to his voyage, Holman appointed Chanet "his Agent to transact his business during his absence." Charging that Chanet illegally seized and sold certain slaves, Holman avers that he has "applied to the said Anthony, as his Agent, to make out a full and fair statement of all his transactions as his Attorney during his absence" but the said Chanet "hath hitherto wholly refused and Keeps your orator totally ignorant of the state of his property and funds in his hands." He therefore prays that Chanet be ordered to answer his charges and that he be decreed "to deliver up to him the bond and mortgage." Holman also prays that the defendants not be allowed "to molest, seize, carry away, sell or otherwise dispose of any of the Negroes mentioned" in said bond and mortgage."
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
