The Prides, a family of emancipated mulatto slaves, seek to recover money they should have received according to their late master's will. The petitioners remind the court that Francis Pride's 1847 will freed his slaves--particularly them, their relative Nancy and their mother Kizziah--if they could stay in Tennessee or move to Illinois. After Francis Pride died in 1850, several lawsuits resulted in various chancery and state supreme court decrees. The Prides maintain that some of the chancery decrees contradicted the will's directions and the supreme court's rulings. As a result, the executor wrongfully received the proceeds of their hire, and the executor and heirs received money that should have been used to pay the emancipation expenses. The petitioners complain that none of the money left to Kizziah "has ever been applied to the use of your Complainants or of said Nancy or Kizziah." The Prides seek to recover the money, especially the funds left to their mother and the proceeds of their own hires. "Said funds were all the fruit of the labor of complainants; wherefore they think they have a higher Equity to them than any one else...they feel that they have a right in law and conscience to this fund, the proceeds of their labor as against the Executor & legatees who never spent a drop of sweat for it." The Prides want the court to reverse or modify the earlier decrees and award them the money that should have been set aside for them, plus all profits made on that money and accrued interest.
Result: Granted; appealed; affirmed.
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Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
