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Negro Moses Graham v. Richard B. Alexander.
If a female slave be sold in Alexandria county, "she to be free at thirty-one, and her children then born, and those afterwards to be born, at the same age," a child afterwards born of such slave before her age of thirty-one, is entitled to freedom when arrived at the age of thirty-one years.
The jury found the following special verdict: We find that the
That Miss Brown, by her will, recognized the terms of sale of said negroes, to her sister, to be, that they were to be free at thirty-one years of age. That the petitioner will be, on the 25th of December, 1839, twenty-six years of age. That Miss Brown sent an officer for Milly to Georgetown, where she (Milly) was then residing, and from whence she was brought, in 1813, to her sister's, with the intention to sell her and her children to her sister, and did thereupon, sell her as before stated, on the terms and conditions stated in her will; and that the said Milly was kept in Alexandria county from the time of her said importation, till she became thirty-one years of age, when she was suffered to go free, and is free now; and the petitioner was so kept in the said
And if, upon the facts aforesaid, the law be for the petitioner, then we find for the petitioner, and if otherwise, for the defendant."
Messrs. Swann & Swann, for the defendant, contended that the petitioner had no claim to freedom under the will of Miss Brown, as he was not named nor referred to therein; and there was no evidence of his emancipation under any other instrument in writing, under hand and seal, and acknowledged, or proved as required by the
But the Court (
"It s this 18th day of February, 1840, ordered that the said defendant, Richard B. Alexander, shall not be permitted to take the said petitioner into his possession, (the said petitioner being now in the custody of the marshal for safe-keeping, and for the protection of the rights of the said petitioner,) until he, the said Richard B. Alexander, shall have given bond to the United States with good security in the penalty of $1,000, with condition to be void, if he shall have the said petitioner forthcoming, and produce him to this Court, or to the marshal of this district on the aforesaid 26th day of December, 1844; the said bond and security to be approved by this Court, or one of the judges thereof; Provided, however, that the said petitioner, Moses Graham, shall have first given security to the said Richard B. Alexander by bond with good security, to be approved by this Court, or one of the judges thereof, in the penalty of $800, conditioned that he, the said Moses, shall continue faithfully in the service of the said Richard