George Crank purchased a slave named Nancy from William Garland with the understanding that the woman was "a good cook," twenty-two years old or younger, and "sound & healthy." Crank soon discovered that the slave was not a cook, was twenty-six years old, and was afflicted with scrofula, "a disease as your orator is advised, that has heretofore baffled the skill of the medical profession." He deems the property "a gross imposition upon your orator" and confides his uneasiness that "the fixed disease under which sd slave seemed to be laboring," which "invariably perpetuates itself in successive generations," would "in all human probability" cause Nancy to "introduce, &, in the course of time, propagate" the disease "upon his farm." He seeks relief, including the right to cancel his purchase contract, and an injunction to halt a suit by Garland seeking full payment.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia