Caroline Henderson, "now wife of Dr. Whitman Wilcox," petitions to recover sixty-nine slaves currently in the possession of William J. Fort. She represents that she and her brother, George Henderson, “derived title” to “slaves & movable property” in April 1839 as heirs of Stephen Henderson, who died in New Orleans in 1838. In 1842, Caroline and George made a partition of the property allotted to them, and Caroline received the slaves now in dispute. The slaves are currently in the possession of Fort who “pretends” to own the slaves and a plantation “by virtue of an act of sale” made by Dr. Wilcox. Although she admits to signing an agreement, Caroline avers she had no knowledge of relinquishing her right of title to the slaves or to the sale of the slaves. Instead, she believed she was signing an act renouncing her rights of mortgage on her husband’s property. Caroline asks the court to declare her “the true and legal owner of the slaves” and to order Fort to pay for the services of the slaves at the rate of $8,000 per year.
Result: Found for defendant.
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Repository: West Feliciana Parish Courthouse, St. Francisville, Louisiana
