Jincy Ballard, administratrix of the estate of the late James Ballard, asks for a new hearing in a slave title dispute with Samuel Caston. Ballard charges that Caston "has taken out of the possession of your Petitioner" a slave woman named Sylvia and her five children, who belong to her late husband's estate, "pretending that they were his property." Ballard and Caston agree that Caston purchased Sylvia and her son, Reuben, "as agent and for the benefit of your petitioner's intestate" at an 1812 sheriff's sale. Ballard claims, however, that Caston agreed to "reconvey the said negroes at any time;" Caston asserts that his purchase was "unconditional" and that he never gave the intestate "the right to redeem" the slaves. Jincy's 1823 suit resulted in the court dismissing the intestate's claim to redeem the slaves, but sustained it "so far as to order an account between the parties." She asks now that the evidence be reheard.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
