The executors and heirs of the late Nicholas Perkins seek to sell a slave from his estate. By his will, Perkins ordered his slaves distributed among his heirs. His daughter, Agatha Sally Marr, and her husband received twenty slaves, including a sixteen-year-old named Ann. Ann, who served as a nurse, was "impulsed by some motive" to give the Marrs' infant daughter, Mary E. B. Marr, "a dose of Laudanum which caused the death of the child and said slave has been prosecuted in this court for the crime of Murder," but she has been acquitted. Despite Ann's acquittal, the Marrs are "unwilling to receive her again in their family." The petitioners, in their capacity as estate executors, pray that they be permitted to sell Ann and be allowed to purchase another slave for their use. The petition is accompanied by testimony from Ann's trial, including the testimony of several slaves. Mr. Nichols, the Marrs' overseer, testifies that another slave named Tom may have compelled Ann to give the child an overdose. Nichols believes Tom and Ann may have been engaged in a sexual relationship. Several witnesses suggest that Ann may have poisoned the child because she did not want to accompany the Marr family on an upcoming trip to Alabama.
Result: Granted.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: Williamson County Preservation of Records and Archives, Franklin, Tennessee
