A. Saltmarsh, executor of the estate of William R. King, deceased, explains that in his will King bequeathed funds to purchase the slave Asher and provide him with a legacy of five hundred dollars upon his leaving the state. Asher's owner, however, refused to sell him during her lifetime. She did, however, accede to Archer's request to learn the carpenter's trade. "This trade is believed to be of much greater value to him than his legacy," the executor argues, "and besides it is understood that he has no wish to leave this section of the country his mother & kinsfolks being here." Saltmarsh asks that "the value & benefit" of his becoming a carpenter be substituted for the five hundred dollar legacy and that the court accept the substitution as being "consistent with justice & the facts of the case."
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Repository: Dallas County Courthouse, Selma, Alabama
