Roger, a sixty-two-year-old "infirm" man of color, asks the court to uphold his right to freedom. He claims that "25 or 30 years ago he contracted for his freedom with his owner, John R. Hill, and has long since paid the contract price." The petitioner then married Martha Mitchell, born a free woman of color, by whom he had several children. Roger asserts that "altho he had his right to be free yet he had never been emancipated, and he prevailed on his former owner to convey the title to his said wife-- who being her self free could hold property." Martha died several years since leaving a will and "from the scope of this will it is Manifest that he is not bequeathed into a state of slavery." However, Martha's executor, John Scribner, treats the petitioner as such and has even "hired him for the benefit of his own children as their slave." Roger avers that he has a right to his freedom, having long since paid for it. He prays that Scribner be enjoined from hiring him out as a slave and that the court protect his right to freedom. He further prays that, if granted the rights of a free man, he be allowed to remain in Tennessee and not be removed to Liberia, fearing that "to remove him to Liberia-- would be to send him a great journey among strangers to find a grave."
Result: Injunction granted.
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Repository: Maury County Historical Society Loose Records Project, Columbia, Tennessee
