George Taylor, of Virginia, represents that, in February 1833, he hired out one hundred and three slaves to Joseph B. Wilkinson, Robert A. Wilkinson, and Clement B. Penrose, of Plaquemines Parish. Joseph Wilkinson’s wife, Catherine, was also a party to the contract. Taylor now charges that the defendants have broken their contract in several ways: they have neglected to pay for the hires; they have sold the sugar crops on which he had a privilege and which was supposed to have been delivered to him as payment; and they have moved sixty or seventy of his slaves from their plantation to a wood yard in Jefferson Parish, where a number of them have died of cholera. Taylor seeks payment in the form of 285,019 pounds of sugar or its value of $27,077.10. He also asks that the contract be annulled and the slaves, “with their increase,” restored to him. In the meantime, he asks that a writ of sequestration be issued for the slaves and the sugar crop. Neither the petition nor the related documents make it clear whether Taylor actually owned the slaves hired to the Wilkinsons or acted as an agent. Nor do the documents make clear whether the slaves were hired from within Louisiana or transported from Virginia.
Result: Partially granted; appealed; affirmed.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans, Louisiana
