Legal Document regarding Slavery in Chicot, Arkansas in 1855.

Chicot, Arkansas: Chicot Circuit Court, 1855. Handwritten. Very good- condition. Unbound. Signed by Author(s). Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. Three page legal document, with docketing on the fourth page. Dated April 9 and 10th, 1855 in another hand, and signed by David Jehu Massingill. Witnessed by Samuel H. Cooper and Sam N. Caughey. Due to the plaintiff's witness living out of state and for other reasons, Massingill petitions the court about admitting the affiant testimony of Doctor B. J. Collins in lieu of oral testimony. Collins is a material witness who "made careful examination of the negro in controversy several times before he died, and once at length (truncated) after he died, whereby he became fully acquainted with the controversial conditions and health of said negro; that soon after the sale of said negro to the plaintiff said negro was partially diseased, and that such disease was one of long standing and which had its origin long before the said sale; and that said disease in a very short time proved fatal and produced the death of said negro, and in the mean time said negro was of very little or no value to plaintiff...". A late Antebellum South legal document providing insight into the transactional nature of slavery evidenced by details laid forth in a contract dispute.. (Inventory #: 020227)