Jane Buchannan states that she and O.A. and D.B. Ross entered into a partnership in April 1835, whereby she provided a “gang of negroes” and the land on which a forge, a sawmill, and a gristmill were located. She also furnished part of the capital. Promised one third of the profits, Jane attests that she gave the venture her “whole true labour and attention,” superintending the domestic part of the business, cooking for the two men and the “negroes,” and making clothes. The Rosses also worked hard, and the enterprise became very successful and profitable. The partners sold a large amount of a unique type of iron exclusively manufactured by their slaves, as well as crops of corn, cotton, and other staples. Jane claims, however, that the Rosses were “extravagant in their personal expenses” and “indulged in many idle and visionary speculations” separate and apart from their business with her. The partnership ended in 1842 with the death of O.A. Ross. Jane charges that, while the partnership was in effect, O.A. and D.B. never paid her any of the profits and that there has never been any accounting of the assets. Fearing that she may not ever receive what is due her, Jane prays that D.B. Ross and Lewis Clarey, the administrator of O.A. Ross, be decreed to “account fully for the capital put in and the proceeds arising to the firm during its continuance” and to pay her “what may appear to be due her on such accounting.”
Result: Granted; final judgment pending commissioner's report.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
