In her last will and testament, the late Eleanor Dall wrote, "I hereby manumit enfranchise and set free my negro woman Maria and her two children Benjamin and Harriett, the freedom of said Children to take effect when they shall have respectively attained the age of twenty one years." Maria, now a free person of color, states that Harriett is currently in jail and claimed by Edward Ridgely, administrator of Dall's estate, as his slave for life. Maria believes that Ridgely intends to take her daughter, now seventeen years old, out of the state. She asks the court to subpoena Ridgely and require him to give security that he will not remove Harriett.
Result: Partially granted; denied; appealed; affirmed.
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Repository: Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland
