James v. Tankersley

Hemphill, Ch. J.

This is a suit by plaintiff and appellants to recover a negro woman and child alleged to be the property of the said Catherine, with a prayer that it be ordered and adjudged to be her property. Judgment was for defendant, and eighteen grounds have been assigned as reasons for its reversal. It would be a tedious task to recapitulate the facts of the case, or to discuss the numerous grounds on which the judgment has been assailed.

The controversy was finally reduced to the single point, whether the slaves were the property of the husband James H., or of Catherine his wife; or, in…