David Sayers, executor of the will of the late Ben McCutcheon, represents that his testator died in 1851 possessed of a thirty-one-acre tract of land and sundry "chattel property." Sayers further states that McCutcheon, a free person of color, "directed his just debts to be paid & then that his aged mother, be supported during her natural life by his estate"; he "then gave the Surplus left to his eleven children." He points out that "the Testators children, at his death were, & now are slaves & without any existing right to emancipation." Being "advised that said tract of land, under the laws of the state was escheated & is without the control of your Honorable body," Sayers prays that a special law be passed "authorising the sale of said land & the distribution of the proceeds under the Will of said Testator."
Result: Referred to judiciary committee.
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
