Benjamin Franklin Bates, trustee for Elvina A. Bates Belew, asks that Thomas Belew Sr. "deliver unto your orator the negro man Jack and account for his use and hire to your orator." He represents that his late father, Anthony Bates, bequeathed "a certain negro man slave by the name of Jack" to his sister, "the said Elvina A for life and for her sole and separate use." Recounting that he "was regularly appointed Trustee for the said Elvina," Bates asserts that Thomas Belew, the agent of Reuben Belew, "applied to your orator to hire the said boy Jack to work on the Railroad." Bates, "well knowing the dangers to which laborers are exposed on Railroads," declares that he "declined and positively refused to hire the said boy Jack to the Defendant." He charges, however, that said Thomas "without his knowledge or consent took possession of said boy and wrongfully withholds him pretending that he is holding the boy under a contract of hire from the said Reuben Belew." The petitioners therefore pray that said Thomas Belew "be compelled" to hand over the said slave and that he be restrained "from using employing and working the said negro man Jack on the Railroad or in any other manner."
Result: Continued for amendment.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
