William Perkins seeks to recover an enslaved female named Jenny, whom he purchased for $800 from John Bond. Perkins purports that "previous to the said purchase by your Orator the said John had hired out the said negro slave to one John Laymaster" for a year. He further relates that he "being about to take some hands out of the state was desirous to get the said slave into his possession" and that he hired William Floyd "to procure the delivery of the said slave," giving the said Floyd a bill of sale. Perkins argues that "when the bill of sale was made it was not expected or intended to pass the property out of your Orator, or to give the said Floyd any right of property in or to the said slave." He charges that the said Laymaster and Floyd "in order to oppress and injure your Orator absolutely deny your Orators right to the said slave and refuse to deliver the girl, give up the bill of sale, or execute a reconveyance." He therefore prays that the defendants "be compelled by a decree of this Honorable Court to deliver and reconvey to your Orator the said slave ... and account for the profits of the said slave" and that they be restrained from "conveying the said negro slave out of the State." Floyd counters in his answer that Perkins owes him money for services rendering in finding a mulatto female slave named Isabel, who had been "stolen away" and whom Perkins "was much attached."
Result: Injunction granted; bill dismissed; appealed; reversed.
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
