1871-018: Noah Jackson & wife vs. Admr. of D H E Saunders, etc.

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Plaintiffs Noah Jackson and his wife, Louisa Tyree sought to settle a contract made in May 1860 with D. H. E. Saunders and John Simpson. Jackson and Tyree assert that they had entered into a formal agreement with Saunders and Simpson that arranged for Jackson, who had been formally enslaved by Saunders at that time, to be sold to Simpson under the mutual understanding of all parties that Jackson would live a free man. Moreover, that their contract would allow Jackson to trade as a freeman and to remain in the Commonwealth for as long as he personally desired to do so. Tyree, a freewoman at the time, put her house and lot in Charlottesville up as security for this contract. According to the bill, the plaintiffs were unaware prior to 1868 that their contract did not legally provide those rights and privileges to Jackson; the very condition that was their primary motivation for entering into such a formal agreement with Saunders and Simpson in the first place.

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