Margaret McDonald, administratrix of the estate of her late husband, Edward McDonald, asks permission to sell a "bad and vicious" slave named John, or Jack, a Negro man age twenty-five or twenty-six. She claims that it is both in her interest and that of the estate that the slave, whom she describes as "almost utterly impossible to govern or control" and who is currently being housed in the county jail to prevent him from running away, be disposed of as soon as possible and the money invested "otherwise." She explains that the slave, having been purchased by her husband with her money, is in fact her separate property. She recognizes, however, that the title issue has been settled, she must account for him as the property of her husband's estate. In any case, she points out, should her claim to title be denied by the court, as her husband's widow she is entitled to a life interest in one half of "said slave." Related documents reveal that John brought $1,100 when he was sold on 1 November 1858. By 1860, Margaret McDonald has remarried; and she and her new husband, Joseph Villerman, have purchased of the other heirs "all their right title and interest" in the estate.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Arkansas History Commission, Little Rock, Arkansas
