John Livingston asks to sell three female slaves and their children. He recounts that his mother-in-law, Sarah Postell, bequeathed three slaves to each of her four grandchildren in 1851. Her will directed that her executors hold the slaves in trust until her grandchildren married or reached twenty-one years of age. He contends that the three slaves, Margaret, Clara, and Malvina, are too costly to maintain and that his children would be better served by their sale; Margaret, for example, "has paid no wages for the last six years but on the other hand has subjected the trust to considerable expense in the payment of Medical Bills and Taxes." Moreover, the petitioner discloses that these women and their children are "almost white" and the "parties who cohabit" with the women have offered to purchase them and their children. Livingston asks that he be permitted to sell Margaret, Clara, Malvina and their children and to reinvest the proceeds for the benefit of his children.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
