William Hoy asks that the title of a female slave and her six children "be settled upon his children." He represents that his father-in-law, Alfred Dean, "gave to the wife of your Petitioner in her life time a negro woman a favorite family servant & three of her children by deed of Trust to J W Miller for the use of the daughter for life;" upon Frances's death, the trustee was to sell said slaves. The petitioner states that his wife died in 1860 and that the said trustee proceeded with the sale of Caroline and all six of her children; with Alfred Dean's consent, the petitioner bought all seven slaves for $12,000 in June 1864. William Hoy now "prays that your Honors may order that the negroes be settled upon his children." The commissioner's report asserts that the $12,000 asked for these slaves is too high and reflective of the unstable wartime currency. It insists that Hoy was charged roughly $1700 per slave; however, before the Civil War, the three youngest children, who are between two and eight years of age, would have been valued at less than $700 each.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
