In March 1849, Susan M. Wray is living with her mother Mary Cox of Lexington, Georgia and seeks additional financial support during divorce proceedings. Albert G. Wray, she writes, is a man of substantial wealth. His plantation, located on some of the "best Prairie land in Macon County," contains perhaps a thousand acres; he owns horses, mules, hogs, and cattle, worth fifteen thousand dollars; and he owns about eighty-five slaves, "uncommonly likely a number of which he obtained by his intermarriage with your petitioner," and worth at least $35,000. His annual income is about $3,500. When she left Alabama, her husband gave her three hundred dollars, not to be considered as alimony, and the use of two female slaves "whose annual value would not exceed one hundred and fifty dollars." She admits that before leaving "she released to him all her interest in his estate both real and personal Which release your petitioner in utter ignorance of her rights & in the absence of that friend & legal advice she so much required executed, being at the time much disturbed & harassed in both body & mind [p. 565]." He can easily spare a small support payment, she asserts, being "a man and surrounded by the influence & credit which his wealth procures."
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Repository: Montgomery County Courthouse, Montgomery, Alabama
