The free mulatto female heirs of the late John Holman, an English-born slave trader, join their free mulatto husbands in asking the court to compel the executors of Holman's last will and testament to account with them for their proportion of their father's estate. The petitioners report that some of their father's slaves have produced "considerable crops" on a plantation belonging to the estate, while others have been hired out to generate income. They complain that they have not received "their said proportion of three Eighth part of the said Estate" and ask that the court protect the same. They also seek interest on the profits "for the detention of the same from the day on which they became legally entitled to the same." The answer of executor John Holman Jr. explains that the delay in coming to a settlement with his sisters originates from the complicating factor that some of his own property was appraised as part of his father's estate. Holman reasons that being "an African born, & totally ignorant of the Laws & usages of this State, & not knowing for what purposes an Inventory & valuation of the property was making, he took no concern therein."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
