On 19 October 1858, Charles G. Griffith sold the indenture of nine-year-old Margaret Winchester, a free person of color, to Mary Jane Mason. Mason alleges that Winchester is "a girl of a high temper and malicious disposition," defiant and disobedient, and "addicted to the vice of intemperance, and to the use of indecent and profane language." According to Mason, Winchester has struck her twice, "once so violently that your petitioner's arm was much bruised." When Mason threatened to have a son "chastise" her, Winchester replied "that if he laid his hands on her 'she would cut his damned heart out.' " The night of 13 June 1860, Winchester refused to come into the house when Mason locked up and Mason does not know her present whereabouts. Fearing for her family's safety, she asks the court to cancel the indenture and "to relieve her from the obligation she is under towards the said Margaret."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland
