Slavery
Texas, ca. 1851
Texas Slaveholder Seizes Slaves from Fellow Slaveholders to Prevent Their Being Sold Out of the State
MDS

[SLAVERY.] Copy of Egbert. O. Oliver, Manuscript Document Signed, Deposition, ca. 1851, Texas. 10 pp., 8" x 12". Expected folds.

This deposition illustrates the dangerous aspects of slaveholding in Texas. In the middle of the night, a band of some twenty armed men rode from one county to another north of Houston and carried away seventeen slaves that they believed would be sold out of the state, contrary to an earlier agreement.

Stonum filed suit against John W. Fowler, William H. Fowler, and Benjamin H. Halsted. Stonum asserted that he had sold the slaves to Halsted with the stipulation that Halsted not sell or remove the slaves out of the county. Stonum insisted that Halsted had conspired with the Fowlers and sold the slaves to William H. Fowler in October 1845 with a plan to sell the slaves in Louisiana. Stonum insisted that the Fowlers and Halsted had "secreted" them with the "design" of transporting them out of the state. The court seized the slaves under a writ of sequestration. Fowler and Clepper gave a bond and recovered the slaves.

In May of 1847, George Stonum and a group of approximately twenty men, including several members of his family and Egbert O. Oliver, rode from Stonum's plantation in Grimes County, Texas, to neighboring Montgomery County. There, they forcibly removed seventeen enslaved African American men, women, and children from the plantations of John W. Fowler, Samuel G. Clepper, and Calvin McCormick.

Fowler and Clepper then sued Stonum for damages for forcibly taking the slaves from them. The court in Harris County found Stonum guilty and assessed damages at $300. When the court overruled the plaintiffs' motion for a new trial, Fowler and Clepper appealed to the Texas Supreme Court. In January 1851, that court reversed the judgment of the lower court and remanded the case to the lower court for further proceedings.

Excerpts
"I do know what is the subject matter of this suit and say it is for the Defendant Stonum taking & retaining from the possession of the plaintiffs Fowler & Clepper Certin negro slaves"

"I say slaves are the subject matter of this suit and say they are of as good quality as any in the county of the same number and there were sixteen or seventeen in number and their value are eight thousand dollars"

"Between 13 & 16 of the negroes were taken from Fowler & Clepper Plantation and one from Calvin McCormick while I was in company with the Deft Stonum and the boys & After leaving town where we got the girl from McCormacks Stonum and a part of the Company went off after the other three then at P D Fowlers and Halsteds and when Stonum reach home he had the three negroes and said he had got them from Fowlers & Halsteds I cannot state particularly the time when but it was in the spring of 1847 during the night and early in the morning"

"I have been in the habit of hiring out my negroes and have a knowledge of the value of the hire of negroes I would say the hire of the lot of negroes now in controversy is worth pr month between one hundred and forty and fifty dollars"

"There were seventeen I believe taken their names are Jesse Charles Baye Jerry Solomon Berry Phebee Julia Peurna Palsey Caroline Harriett Herod John Leonard some small ones names not recollected"

"I say George Stonum now has possession of said negroes and has had the possession near four years he acquired such possesion by going in the night time & taking or decoying them of[f] from the plaintiffs such possesion was retained by holding on to the negroes and declaring the plaintiffs should not have them"

Egbert O. Oliver (1824-1853) was born in Alabama. In 1850, he was a farmer in Grimes County, Texas, where he owned 9 slaves. He was arrested in Montgomery County for assault with intent to kill. While awaiting trial, he broke out of jail. After riding through town several times during court and threatening to burn the jail, he was shot from his horse on October 1, 1853, and died instantly.

George Stonum / Stoneham (1786-1868) was born in Virginia to a Revolutionary War veteran and his wife. He moved with his family to Georgia around 1802. He and his brother-in-law moved to Alabama around 1820. When his sister and brother-in-law died of fever, George Stonum became guardian of their children. He and his four nephews moved to Texas in 1844. By 1860, he owned 115 slaves in Grimes County, Texas, and produced 6,000 bushels of corn and 362 bales of cotton.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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