The president and secretary of the "Duck River Slack-Water Navigation Company" request a loan of $150,000 to complete the project to make the river navigable for steamboats. They propose that said loan "be secured by a mortgage upon the works of the Company--upon the negroes now owned, and upon those it designs purchasing with the larger portion of funds arising from the sale of the Bonds." They further agree that "it will, if desired, stipulate in the mortgage, when the work is completed, to sell the negroes, under the supervision of an Agent ... and with the proceeds buy up the same amount of Bonds loaned it, and deliver them to be cancelled; until which time the State shall retain her lien on the Works, Stock and Negroes of the Company." According to the petitioners, the Company "now owns, and has engaged on the works, eighty-two able-bodied negro men, together with four women, cooks."
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
