The petitioner is a twenty-four-year old slave name Bob Moussa. Moussa claims that the will and testament of his former master, the late Julien Poydras, stipulated that each of his six plantations be sold “with the whole of the slaves on it” at the time of his death, i.e., “attached and inseparable” from it. It also stipulated that the purchaser should be compelled to keep the slaves together for twenty-five years from the date set by the Testamentary Executor, at which time they should all be freed for life. Since the testator's death, his plantation located on the False River, has been sold first to Benjamin Poydras de la Lande, and then to Valérien and Sosthène Allain. Shortly after the second sale, the Allains sold the petitioner to Villeneuve Leblanc, separating him from his plantation, and thus, Moussa claims, violating the terms of Poydras's will. Moussa also claims that he has reasons to fear that his new owner is planning to take him out of state. He asks the court to declare the contract of sale between the Allains and Villeneuve Leblanc null, to "restore" him to his plantation, and to forbid the Allains to ever separate him from it.
Result: Denied; appealed; upheld.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: West Baton Rouge Parish Courthouse, Port Allen, Louisiana
