David Johnson, executor of the late David Beaty, reports that his testator devised to the slaves in his possession "their entire freedom and the settlement of them" on "lands in the Indiana Territory." He further represents that Anne Hope, the sister of said Beaty, "filed an Injunction Bill against your petitioner in the Supreme court of Errors and Appeals ... whereby your petitioner was injoined from taking the said negroes beyond the limits of the state of Tennessee and emancipating them, or emancipating them in the state of Tennessee." Johnson reveals that a ruling was rendered whereby "your petitioner should be allowed the term of twelve months from the date of the decree, to procure the emancipation of said slaves by any legal means whatever." The petitioner begs "leave to suggest, that he has been advised that the provisions made by law relative to the emancipation of slaves in general, are inadequate to the carrying into effect said last will and testament; as they require a petition for the emancipation of slaves, to be exhibited to the court, setting forth meritorious services &C, and that that is the only ground upon which the court can legally exercise their power in such cases." Johnson therefore prays that an act be passed “declaring the said slaves and their increase, free.”
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
