Sarah Harman begs the court to enjoin the sale of eleven-year-old Ellen. The petitioner informs the court that her son, Drury J. Harmon, purchased several slaves in 1837, "and among them an infant named Ellen, then about a year old" and that said Drury gave Ellen "to your Oratrix for her raising." Sarah confesses that "the Said infant has been brought up in her house, and slept in her bed chamber, and has been treated almost as a member of her family, and your Oratrix has contracted that attachment to her which might be naturally expected to result from such a state of things." She further reveals that "judgments have been obtained against Drury J Harman" and that the sheriff "has levied also upon the Said girl Ellen as part of the property" of her son. Insisting that Ellen is her absolute property, the petitioner prays that the execution creditors, along with her son and the sheriff, "be restrained by Injunction from this Honorable Court from selling the Said Slave under the Said Executions" and that "Ellen be decreed by your Honors to be the property of your Oratrix."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
