The petitioners are the absent heirs of the late Julien Poydras and twelve slaves who once belonged to his estate. They are represented by a local heir, Benjamin Poydras de Lalande. Poydras de Lalande represents that, by his last will and testament, the late Julien directed that his slaves be considered attached to "one or the other of his different plantations" and sold with that plantation. He stipulated that any purchaser should be bound to free the slaves twenty-five years later, allow those over the age of sixty to remain on the plantation, and give them a stipend of $25 per annum without requiring work. Shortly after Julien’s death, his plantation in Pointe Coupée was sold with its one-hundred-and-forty slaves, among whom the twelve slave petitioners, to Pélagie Marguerite Garnier de Mulnière, widow Mourain, and Magdeleine Michelle Garnier de Mulnière, wife of Alex Bonneau, both residents of “the Kingdom of France” and both also heirs of the late Julien. Benjamin Poydras de Lalande claims that, although “amicably requested,” the two women’s representatives, Gustave Delamarre and Peter G. Mourain, have refused to bestow on the twelve elderly slaves the benefits to which they are entitled by virtue of their former master’s will. He therefore prays that the two men be ordered, on behalf of their absentee clients, to emancipate the slaves and pay each one of them $25 per year.
Result: Partially granted; appealed; reversed.
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Repository: Pointe Coupee Parish Courthouse, New Roads, Louisiana
