Malachi Ford asserts that Wherriett Lewis in 1795 "did in a most wanton and barbarous manner shoot and wound a valuable Negro Man the property of yr Petitioner" and that the slave "in a few days died" to his "great loss and injury." Ford reports that said Lewis "was convicted and fin'd in the sum of Fifty Pounds which he with difficulty (being poor) paid" and that, "in Justice to himself," he sued for damages and won a judgment of one hundred and fifty pounds. The petitioner avers that Lewis is too poor to pay said judgment and that his only recourse would be "to arrest and confine him in Gaol" whereupon his jail fees would only add to Lewis's debt and still not result in any payment to himself. Ford further notes that such a course of action "would tend to deprive the Family of the Culprit for a time of their only means of support." The petitioner therefore asks that "yr. Honble. House will take his case into yr. consideration and direct that the Sum of Fifty Pounds as aforesaid be paid" to him "as a small or partial Indemnification for his Loss."
Result: Referred to committee.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
