Thomas Maples joins his son-in-law, William A. Brock, and his daughter, Mary Maples Brock, in asking that Mary be compensated for "her share of the value" of a slave named Lucy, who died "by the gross illusage" of Edward Broughton. He relates that he sold a family of slaves in 1836 for $1200 and that Edward Broughton, as guardian of the Maples children, used $1000 of the proceeds from said sale to purchase 27-year-old Lucy and her two children "for the children of your Orator Thomas Maples." They attest that Lucy, "a woman of very delicate frame and constitution ... and utterly unfit for field labor," was in Broughton's possession in 1838; that in May of that year "he put her to hard labor in the open field;" and that she ran away, only to be "carried back" to him on 10 June. They decry that Broughton "whipped her severely - confined her at night with a chain round her neck" and on the next day "caused her to be stripped naked and in that condition put her to hard labor in an open field and under a burning sun," where she died that afternoon. Arguing that "he is liable to account for her value to your Oratrix," they pray that Broughton "may be decreed to pay" Mary "her share of the value of the said negro woman Lucy" as well as her share, "which shall appear to be due from him upon the taking" of an account of his "actings and doings ... as guardian."
Result: Granted pro confesso.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
