One hundred and nine residents of Smith County state that, on 22 July 1853, a "Negro Boy worth some fourteen or fifteen hundred Dollars did near the Town of Canton ... commit an act that would have forfeited his Life under the Laws of the Land." They further report that "on the same or Succeeding Day to the number of five or Six hundred persons assembled and Executed him forthwith." The petitioners assert that the slave belonged to Dr. D. P. Fowler, "who is a poor man." They therefore pray that Dr. Fowler "be placed in the Same condition under the Law that he would have been If his property had been legally executed according to Law, It was no fault of his that the proceedings were not Legal."
Result: Referred to committee on finance.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: Texas State Library-Archives Division, Austin, Texas
