James Willis asks that a family of five slaves "be delivered in specie to your orator." He relates that he purchased Peggy and her four children in 1855 from Lewis Rice, who had bought said slaves from the estate of his father-in-law, the late Robert M. Willis. Noting that he paid $2500 to Rice, the petitioner learned that Rice had been required to give bond, with sureties, as well as execute a mortgage to secure the purchase price to the estate. Willis states that one of Rice's sureties foreclosed on said mortgage and that the sheriff has taken "said negroes into his possession" to sell them "for the payment of the amount due." He reveals that he has raised the sum necessary to redeem said mortgage "by selling three of his other slaves," but he is unable to pay said debt as he is not "a party to said Bond." Willis charges that Rice got possession of said slaves and that he has "secreted them where they could not be found and refused to deliver them." Confessing that "he is very much attached to said slaves," Willis prays that said sheriff "may be enjoined from selling said slaves;" that Rice may be enjoined from removing said slaves from the court's jurisdiction; and that "your orator may be permitted to pay and discharge the amount due upon said Bond and mortgage."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
