William F. Pearson petitions on behalf of his three minor children to protect their slave property. In 1852, Pearson's mother gifted eight slaves to his children, with him standing as trustee. Pearson and his children lived with his mother until 1854, when she died intestate, possessed of 200 acres of land, two other slaves, and a crop of cotton. Soon after, while the Pearsons still lived on the intestate’s property, Sheriff R. E. Ellison "intruded upon the premises in the possession of your orator ... and proceeded to make a levy upon a negro boy called Jefferson," one of the eight slaves held in trust for the children. He now advertises to sell the slave. Ellison was apparently acting on an execution in favor of John McCrory, but Pearson maintains that his mother already satisfied McCrory's demand by giving him the proceeds of the sale of three other slaves and a crop of cotton. Pearson believes that "the proceeds of said cotton ... has been fraudulently withheld;" further, McCrory "has applied only a portion of the said proceeds of the sale of the negroes to the execution in his favor," thereby leaving a balance of $350 seemingly unpaid. Pearson prays for any injunction against the sale of Jefferson and that Ellison and McCrory be compelled to return the slave to him.
Result: Granted.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
