In 1835, Thomas B. Mitchell borrowed three hundred dollars from Gideon Berry, using a thirteen-year-old "negro girl named Mary" as security. Mitchell permitted Berry to "enjoy & apply to his own use the value of the services of said slave to defray & pay the interest" on the money. When, three years later, Mitchell tried to repay the debt, Berry refused to accept the money and refused to return the slave. About 1841, Berry turned Mary and her infant daughter Milly over to his son-in-law, Barkley Beard, who took them to Mississippi. Later, the slaves were brought back into Alabama. Now, in 1851, Mary and her four children, Milly, about eleven, Nelly, age nine, Fanny, five, and Sam, a baby, are being held by Beard and are worth about eighteen hundred and fifty dollars. Noting that Beard is planning to move to Arkansas, Mitchell seeks a writ to prevent him from "from carrying the negros afores[a]id from the jurisdiction of this court."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Pickens County Courthouse, Carrollton, Alabama
