Petition #20885031

• East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. March 23, 1850. - March 10, 1851.
• Court: District
• Salutation: To the Honble the Judge of the Sixth Judicial District Court, sitting in the Parish of East Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana

Abstract

Abraham Bird, executor of the estate of the late Henry Clay Vail, seeks an order to sequester a female slave named Jane and her child. Jane was freed by Vail's will and Bird fears that she and her daughter are about to be concealed or "removed out of the limits of the State" in order to prevent him from fulfilling the emancipation as dictated by the will. Mary E. Vail, her husband, Alonzo Alexander, and Abraham B. Vail, heirs of the estate, hold the two slaves and have openly stated that they would not give them up. Bird therefore seeks a writ of sequestration for the two slaves. He prays to be given control of the slaves so that he can execute the will, and he seeks $1,500 as compensation for the slaves’ "wrongful detention."

Result: Countersuit filed; excepted; dismissed; appealed; reversed and remanded.

• Number of petition pages: 4
• Related documents: PARs #20884711, #20885032, #20885041; Verdict, ca. March 1850; Order, 23 March 1850; Record of Application to Dissolve Sequestration, 25 March 1850; Writ of Sequestration [Fragment], ca. 23 March 1850; Petition, Abraham B. Vail, ca. 25 March 1850; Order, 25 March 1850; Supreme Court Opinion and Decree, 10 March 1851
• Pages of related documents: 6

8 people are documented within petition 20885031

• 2 Enslaved
• 3 Defendants
• 1 Petitioner
• 2 Others

Or you may view all people.

Citation information

Repository: East Baton Rouge Parish, Clerk of Court Archives, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

• Records of the Sixth Judicial District Court

Subjects

• owner(s)/citizens manumit/free slave
• Bequest (enslaved)
• Concealing (enslaved)
• Interracial relationships
• Title dispute (enslaved)