Elias and Mary Gumaer of Wisconsin state that they authorized Ann Young, of Washington D.C., to sell their slave Letty Jackson and her son, William Henry, under the conditions that they would not be sold to slave traders or sold out of the District of Columbia. The petitioners state that Young sold the slaves at the reduced price of $500 to Peter Hevener, rejecting higher offers from slave traders. Hevener signed a contract agreeing to the conditions. The Gumaers believe, however, that Hevener is planning to sell Letty and her son to slave dealers who would remove them from the District of Columbia, away from their friends and family. The petitioners aver that Letty and William "are of a peculiar value; that they are not only property of that description, but are rational beings, and are entitled to the humanity and interference of a Court of Equity, and which, in this case can be exercised without invading the right of property; that the considerations which led to imposing the restrictions aforesaid on the purchaser, were then and are now of the highest character and importance to your orators; that their remedy at Common law is incomplete; that compensation in damages would not be adequate to redress such irreparable mischief & wrong." The petitioners seek an injunction preventing Hevener from selling the slaves beyond the jurisdiction of the court and ask that he be summoned to answer their complaint.
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Repository: National Archives, Washington, D. C.
