In 1847, Nancy N. Hutcherson, wife of Moses Hutcherson, died in Noxubee County, Mississippi, leaving a husband and five children. At the time of her death she owned a separate estate of three slaves. The slaves remained on the husband's plantation until his death in 1857. The petitioners, four of Nancy and Moses Hutcherson's children, now assert that they and their other sibling, one of the defendants, are "the only heirs at law, and distributees of the said Nancy; and, by the laws of Mississippi, where she died, they are entitled to Said Slaves, and their increase, and hires hereafter mentioned as joint owners, or tenants-in-common, in equal portions." In 1857, the Probate Court instructed Minor Robinson, the husband of the fifth sibling, to sell the slaves, now five in number, at public auction. At the auction, the petitioners claim, Robinson offered the slaves as a lot, rather than individually, thus ensuring that there would be fewer bidders, which resulted in the slaves being struck off to him at a low price. He then filed a false report, fraudulently stating that the slaves had been purchased by a third party and moved to Sumter County, Alabama, taking the slaves with him. The petitioners seek the sale of the slaves, compensation for the equivalent of "their annual hires," and distribution of the proceeds among all the heirs.
Result: Agreement; granted.
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Repository: Sumter County Courthouse, Livingston, Alabama
