Handwritten Court Document Regarding Slavery In Alabama -

Original handwritten manuscript document, 2-1/4 pp., issued by the State of Alabama Circuit Court for Lawrence County, dated September 1843, detailing the case of Francis A. Leeper vs. Christopher C. Gewin, in which a complaint was issued by Leeper claiming that Gewin had detained three negro slaves he did not own, signed by John B. Sale, P[ublic] D[efender], docketed to verso with case number 4272 which correlates with the Lawrence County, Alabama online archives. Not illustrated. Folio, folded. Some creasing and minor toning as consistent with age, overall very good. Loose as issued. N.p. (Moulton, Alabama?) 1843. In the document, Gewin claims that he does not detain the slaves, named Jane, Clarissa, and Peter, but that they are in fact the "lawful property of one Alexander D. Neill", and that Leeper should drop the complaint. On March 9, 1841, "the branch of the Bank of the State of Alabama at Decatur obtained judgment in the circuit court of Morgan County, Alabama, in its action against said Neill for the sum of fifteen hundred & seventy five dollars." The case was turned over to the Sheriff who, according to state law, was to "sell the said negro slaves Jane, Clarissa & Peter (with the other said property) so levied and detained as aforesaid as the property of the said Alexander D. Neill."