In 1841, following a law suit brought by her husband against her father, Jane F. Garrett received two slaves, Harry, then about twenty-one years old, and Malinda, then about eighteen, in trust for her own and separate use. When her father died in 1853, she was entitled to "one distributive share" of his holdings. At her father's estate sale, her husband purchased Suckey, a woman, Adam, a boy, and James alias Jim, a boy, for $1,207; he also purchased a brass clock, carriage, harness, and black mule, for a total $350, signing a promissory note. The property, worth more than $1,550, was supposed to be her distributive share in her father's estate. Later, her husband sold Malinda "as if she had been his own individual property." When he dies in 1856, the sheriff, William H. H. Hunter, as administrator "de bonis non cum testamento annexo" of his estate, makes plans to take possession of the slaves and other property. Jane Garrett seeks to restrain the sheriff "from interfering with the property above mentioned now in the possession of your Oratrix but that she be allowed to retain the same in her own possession."
Result: Dismissed; appealed; reversed; remanded.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama
