Frances Harrison explains that "at the early age of 14 whilst the member of a respectable family and herself of a character irreproachable, she was made the victim of seduction by the father of her deceased son--From that fatal moment up to the present the injury so far as she was concerned has remained unatoned for and uncompensated - adequately compensated it never could be, as earth contains no equivalent for such a loss as female reputation." Her "natural" son's father, James Garland, a slaveholding planter in a nearby county, took her son from her and "reared him to manhood, maintained and educated him." Unbeknowst to Frances, the son recently died, possessed of a handsome estate in land, money, and slaves, worth between ten or fifteen thousand dollars. One Richard Eubank travelled to inform her of her son's death and offered to purchase her interest in his estate for three hundred dollars, with seven hundred more if no will were discovered "cutting her off." Harrison agreed to the arrangement, but now charges Eubank and others with a gross "outrage upon the rights of an illiterate and defenceless mother and her equally defenceless offspring," the half-brother of her late son. Frances seeks to annul her agreement with Eubank, to enjoin the administrator from selling property or hiring the slaves in her late son's estate, and to secure her portion of the estate.
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
