Forty-eight residents of Union District seek the passage of a law to prohibit whites from bequeathing property, in trust, to slaves. They represent that the courts recognize "that a slave cannot own property of any kind, but that a man having the Right to Give his property to whomever he pleases under some slight Statutory Restrictions may will his property to any free white man in trust ... for the Beneficial use of a slave." They argue that "the slave may not become Independant of his owner and that he may have no artificial help to aid him Quit his masters service." They further insist that when you "Give the slave money or property which is its equivalent ... you place it in his power at once to place himself beyond the reach of servitude." Asserting that "money is power and none need [live] in servitude who can command it," they pray that a law be passed "declaring and providing that no slave within the Limits of South Carolina shall be permitted to take either Directly or Indirectly any beneficial Interest Under any will made by any of the people of South Carolina."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
