Matthew O'Driscoll represents that "two very valuable slaves the property of your Petitioner were shot dead, by an armed Party" while he was attending a committee meeting of the South Carolina House of Representatives convened to investigate "charges of [his] misconduct in Office as Clerk, Ordinary and Register of Colleton District." He further reports that the militia justified its actions by virtue of the 1804 Militia Act Law, which "specifies that such party has the legal right to kill any slave 'that shall have absented himself from the services of his Owner and shall flee from pursuit'." He notes that his slaves were in the company of a runaway slave named April, who has since been "taken, tried convicted and executed for crimes of which he was then guilty" and that April's owner "is now intitled to the usual remuneration from your Honorable House." In contrast, O'Driscoll avows that his "slaves were not accused of having committed any overt act or injured any person during their absence from him, and that he alone was thereby a Sufferer." The petitioner, having been deprived of his property, therefore feels justified in seeking the passage "of a law" that "will reimburse him to the full amount of the loss which he has sustained."
Result: Referred to claims committee.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
