Enslaved People Named: Toney
Slaveowners: William Anderson
Date of Case: 1814
[Begin Transcript]
State of Georgia.
To the Honorable the Judge of the Superior Court for the County of Liberty and said State.
The petition of William Anderson, of said State and County, planter, sheweth, that John Tanner and Samuel Tanner, both of said County and State, yeomen, did, on the twenty second day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, in the County and State aforesaid, with force and arms, to wit, with whips, sticks, staves, knives, hoes, spades, axes, stones, clubs, lightwood-knots and other offensive weapons, assault, beat, wound and ill-treat a certain negro man slave named Toney; the said negro man slave named Toney being the slave and property of your petitioner. And that they, the said John Tanner and Samuel Tanner, on the day and year aforesaid, in the County aforesaid, did beat, sound, maim, and ill treat the said negro man slave named Toney, so that his life was despaired of, and other wrongs to him, then and there, did against the peace of the said State. And your petitioner avers and says, that by reason of the trespass and assault aforesaid, he is injured and hath sustained damage to the value of five hundred dollars; and of this he brings suit.
Wherefore your petitioner prays process may issue, requiring the said John Tanner and Samuel Tanner, personally, or by attorney, to be and appear at the next Superior Court to be held in and for the County of Liberty on the twenty eighth day of March next (being the fourth Monday) then and there to answer your petitioner in said action of trespass & assault & so forth.
Forrester for pet[ione]r.
[End Transcript]
A subpoena was issued for John and Samuel Tanner to appear before the Judge of the Superior Court on March 25th, and it was served on them on March 7, 1814.
They did not appear, however, and the jury ruled for the plaintiff in the amount of $500 plus costs of suit. Recorded in Liberty County Superior Court on April 4, 1814. The judgement was signed and filed on March 29, 1815, according to the Liberty County Superior Court Clerk.
Source: Superior Court minutes, 1804-1820, Liberty County, Georgia, page 488-9; database with images, “Liberty County Superior Court Minutes 1804-1820,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-W4K : accessed 14 June 2023), Family History Library Film 008628963, image 266-7 of 653.