Joseph Owens asks the court to set aside an 1858 indenture, in which he conveyed a plantation and fifteen slaves to Alexander D. G. Owens. The petitioner asserts that the indenture was fraudulent. He confesses that, at the time that he agreed to lease said plantation and slaves to his brother for ten years for the sum of $250, he was very young and "had been drinking freely of intoxicating liquor for two or more days." Moreover, the petitioner characterizes himself as someone "of very ordinary mind, and subject to epileptic fits and addicted to the excessive use of ardent spirits." Joseph Owens insists that the value of the plantation and the slaves far exceeds what Alexander agreed to pay for it. The petitioner reports that his brother died in November of 1859 and that his administrator, Brown Bryan McWhite, refuses to return the slaves and land, or to turn over any part of a large cotton crop that was raised on the plantation. Fearing that McWhite intends to hire out the slaves and rent the land, the petitioner asks that the defendant be enjoined from disposing of the land and slaves in any manner. Joseph Owens also asks that McWhite be compelled to account for the slaves' hire and a portion of the cotton crop.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
