Sucky and her four adult children, former slaves, seek permission to remain in Tennessee as free people of color. Their late owner, Nancy Sanderson, died in 1851 and by her will they were freed. Sanderson "was childless and died at an advanced old age. She ... felt almost maternal solicitude for their welfare and happiness." Sanderson only required that the petitioners be hired out after her death until her estate's debts were paid, which has been done. Sanderson's administrator, A. M. Hughes, has recently filed a petition seeking to have the petitioners removed to Liberia, in compliance with a recent act of state legislation. The petitioners assert that they all have strong ties to Tennessee, having both family and friends in the state; further, Sucky is elderly, sick with dropsy, and in need of constant care. In addition, they "do not wish to go to Liberia. It is a strange and heathen land. They wish to die among Christians." The petitioners "insist that the bequest and the steps taken under it for their emancipation gave them a vested right to be manumitted under the laws of Tennessee as they then stood, and that subsequent legislation cannot deprive them of it." They pray for an injunction against Hughes's petition and that they be allowed to remain in Tennessee, or, at least, that they only be removed to a free state.
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: Maury County Historical Society Loose Records Project, Columbia, Tennessee
