Durham Spalding sues Captain George Taylor and the owners of the Steamer Missouri for the loss of a twenty-three-year-old slave named Felix. Felix was carried out of the state on the Steamer Missouri and "has never, since, been in your petitioner's possession." Spalding argues that "the property, to him was very valuable, and that he has frequently been offered for it the Sum of Fifteen hundred Dollars." Spalding prays for compensation. Related testimonies reveal that Felix was thought to be a white man by all those who met him, and that he was allowed to hire himself out, travel up and down the Mississippi river on steamboats, and to collect his own wages.
Result: Granted; appealed; reversed.
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Repository: University of New Orleans
