James Davidson seeks compensation for the value of a slave named Aleck, whom he purchased in 1834 from Mary Gotton, a recently-deceased free woman of color. Gotton's agent, Robert Butler, warranted Aleck as "sound," but the slave was actually "far advanced in consumption." Aleck hired "about four weeks after the purchase" and then died. Davidson filed suit against Gotton, but the trial abated due to Gotton's death. Butler now acts as Gotton's administrator and lives with her daughter, Julia Mendozi. Davidson alleges that Butler purchased the house and lot where the pair lives during Gotton's lifetime, while acting as her agent and with money from his purchase of Aleck and James Young's purchase of another of Gotton's slaves. Davidson won the suit for his purchase money and damages, but Butler formally questioned whether the house and lot should be liable for Gotton's debts. Butler then assigned Young's mortgage for the slave to Mendozi, and the sheriff now refuses to sell the house in satisfaction of Davidson's judgment. Davidson therefore asks the court to subject the property to the payment of his claim and to enjoin the defendants from selling the property.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
