In an earlier suit, Mahala Trainer, sued her brother, sisters, and father--George, Harriet, Rebecca, and James Bird--for a portion of slaves belonging to them as "tenants in common." In response, the court ordered a division of the slaves. However, Trainer's allotment was worth less than the portions allocated to George, Harriet, and Rebecca. Therefore, the court ordered that the Bird family hire out the slave Peter until his earnings could provide Trainer with three hundred dollars and interest. In this petition, the Bird family complains that the hiring-out of Peter would leave them "destitute of means, without the sale of other property," to pay the costs of the suit and taxes. They also argue that hiring Peter out would "greatly lessen the value to them of said slave, --by the danger to his health and habits to which he would thereby be subjected." The Bird family prays that the court will allow Peter to be sold in order to discharge the debt and the court fees leaving the remaining balance for their own use.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: University of South Alabama Archives, Mobile, Alabama
