Fanny Gray, a free woman of color, asks that she and her children "be placed in the hands of a receiver" so as to prevent the defendants from "selling them in slavery." Fanny recounts that her late husband Simon purchased her for $400 in 1825 and that he successfully "presented a petition to the County Court ... praying the emancipation of your Complainants" in 1836. Representing that Simon died soon thereafter, Fanny charges that several of the defendants "took your complainants and with force and arms carried them on board of a steam boat and carried them to ... Kentucky with a view of selling them in slavery." She reveals that their efforts failed in Kentucky, but she cites that the defendants were successful in procuring executions on Simon's estate, which resulted in her daughter Cassandra being levied upon and sold for $325. Of the belief that "they are in eminent danger of being carried out of the said state ... and sold in slavery," the petitioners "pray that they be immediately in the hands of the sheriff." They further request that they be hired out to defray their court costs; that the defendants be enjoined from recovering them or any debts due the estate; and that the sale of Cassandra "be declared null and void."
Result: Partially granted; abated.
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Repository: Dickson County Courthouse Annex, Charlotte, Tennessee
