Five distributees of the late Major John Threewits seek a partition of his estate. They report that said Threewits died possessed of a “very large real and personal estate” and that, prior to his death, he had repeatedly expressed his desire that his slaves be emancipated and his lands be appropriated to their benefit; he therefore executed several “successive” testamentary documents to “accomplish that object.” When other Congaree River planters learned of his plans, they were “greatly and justly alarmed at the mischief and danger that would necessarily result,” and, in 1841, they applied to several members of the state legislature and “procured the papers” of an act designed to prevent the emancipation of slaves. Threewits reacted to this “abridgment of his liberty” by devising his slaves and most of his lands to one of his nephews, John H. Threewits, directing him to take the slaves out of the state for emancipation or, if not possible, to hold them in “nominal servitude” and use the lands for their benefit. Upon the Major's death in 1842, John H., as administrator, took possession of said estate. Averring that Major Threewits's will is "utterly" voided by the Act of 1841, the petitioners assert that the Major died intestate and that his property should be divided among all his legal distributees. They therefore pray that the bequest of freedom for his slaves be decreed null and void and that a writ of partition be issued to divide said property among all the distributees. They also ask that John H. Threewits be compelled to deliver their share of the slaves and to account for said slaves' labor and hires and for the profits and rents on the lands.
Result: Dismissed.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
