Robert Scruggs petitions for the sale of six slaves. In 1839, Joshua Richard executed a deed of gift in which he gave "one negro girl named Lucinda" and her future increase in trust for the benefit of his grandchildren. Since that time, the grandchildren's father, Charles Amos, has been in possession of Lucinda and her five children. However, "supposing himself to have no interest, or title in the same,” Amos “refuses to keep them any longer, without being paid for doing so; has refused to pay taxes for them for several years; keeps them unemployed, not half fed, or half clothed, & under circumstances, contented to injure the property & impair its value.” Amos also “refuses to surrender the possession of the same to any of those who are interested, & who would take care of it, & account for the value of the hire without some order of this court.” Two of the grandchildren have since sold their portion to Scruggs. The “negro property being so much neglected, so miserably provided for, so perished for want of food clothing and attention” has “greatly depreciated in value, and are becoming more so.” Scruggs prays “that the said Negro property may be ordered to be sold by the commissioners of the court for partition.”
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
