Appointed by the Court of Common Pleas as the guardian of "a Negroe wench named Catherine who claims her freedom," J. E. Holmes asks that the slave be emancipated. Owned by Peter Catonet, a Charleston merchant, Catherine was purchased by Dr. Plumeau with the understanding that she could purchase her freedom for three hundred dollars, a sum far below her value. A contract was entered into between the owner and slave in the presence of Catonet and his wife. Catherine fulfilled her part of the bargain, but when Dr. Plumeau died his heirs denied any knowledge of the agreement. In a court case it was shown that the doctor had been "in the habit of inducing Masters of Slaves to sell them for a less price than the Value- under pretense of emancipating them - and then defrauding the Slaves themselves." It was also proved that Catherine had been "working out and carrying in Wages - for a period sufficiently long to have pd double the sum," and she had paid the interest on her purchase price. By civil law, the petitioner explained, slaves could make contracts with permission of their masters. When the case was appealed, the judge ruled that the guardian should petition the state legislature, "as by a late law they were constituted the proper Tribunal to decide upon Cases of this nature."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
