Etienne Etenaud asks the court to hear his cause "at the present term." He reveals that he "was arrested by virtue of a writ of ne exeat Issued from your Honorable Court at the Suit of Henry Hattier and confined in the Goal of this city" in May 1806. Asserting that "he was ready for trial" in November 1806, Etenaud reports that an attorney's absence postponed the hearing, whereupon he was subsequently served with two more writs as "part of the Debt claimed by Henry Hattier." The petitioner reports that he "procured a Security" and executed a bond, and "paid all fees and received an Order for his discharge" in March 1807; however, the "Said Security was not Accepted by the Sheriff not being deemed Sufficient." Etenaud laments that he has labored under great hardship "from a confinement of Sixteen months." As "a Stranger in this City" and unable to raise sufficient security, he surmises that his only means "to recover his liberty ... is by the trial of his cause in which he trusts to defeat the machinations of his adversary whose Sole hope is by confinement & persecution to compell your petitioner to arrangements detrimental to his Interests and his rights." He therefore prays that the court "will order a hearing of the Cause at the present term." The attached exhibit reveals that the debt involves the sale or mortgage of "Seventeen Negro and mulato men and women and children."
Or you may view all people.
Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
