David Morris Harding seeks to emancipate thirty-five-year-old Major, a slave "who was formerly the property of the late William Harding the Brother of your Petitioner -- that his said Brother in his lifetime had designed and intended to emancipate said slave Major." The petitioner further notes that Major, "a most valuable and faithful slave," was distributed to William's widow and that "she being willing that said slave might be enabled to obtain his freedom as his former master had intended, agreed that as he had been valued to her at the sum of Four Hundred Dollars, your Petitioner, might take him at that price, with a view to secure to him his freedom." Averring that said Major "has paid to him the sum of Four Hundred Dollars," Harding "is now desirous that he may be emancipated."
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
