In 1838, Jeremiah Doss of Coosa County executed his Last Will and Testament, bequeathing his "valuable servant Gilbert now in the state of Georgia" to his father and mother during their life times and then to his brother and sisters. Jeremiah died a very short time later, and Gilbert went into the possession of Jeremiah's brother, Hiram H. Doss. In 1857, Juliann Hatcher, one of Doss's two surviving siblings, discovered that she was entitled to a one-half interest in Gilbert, something her brother Hiram had hidden from her. She had no reason to suspect her brother of fraud, she says, but he deceived her. She sues for an amount equivalent to half the hire of the slave (at least one thousand dollars) from the time her brother took possession of him until the present; she also asks for a sum equal to one half the slave's value with interest. She fears, however, that her brother has taken Gilbert out of the state or "sold him or otherwise disposed of him."
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Repository: Tallapoosa County Courthouse, Dadeville, Alabama
