Joseph and Martha Robb ask that James White, the administrator of the estate of Martha's late father, Samuel Calhoun, be ordered to deliver to them two slaves that Martha's maternal grandfather, Richard King, gave her before his death. They also ask that Calhoun's personal estate, which includes nine slaves, be divided between them and Martha's stepmother, Martha H. Hallam, and her husband, William, "according to their respective rights." The slaves in question, Sloan and Sally, are "family negroes" with whom Martha Robb was raised "from her earliest infancy" and to whom she "has become very much attached." The Robbs assert that the two slaves were devised to Martha in Calhoun's will in order to "carry out the intentions of the said Richard King," and are not subject to Martha Hallam's right of dower as Samuel Calhoun's widow. They testify that "a recovery of their value would be altogether an inadequate remedy" and therefore request "a specific delivery of the slaves themselves." They also ask to be compensated for the slaves' hire while they have been in the hands of said administrator.
Result: Denied; appealed; reversed.
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
