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A SLAVE'S LEGACY ["The Evening Herald," 15 Oct 1903, p1c1] Out of the history of slavery times comes now and again a story of affairs so strangely foreign to these latter days as to seem untrue, if not impossible. an incident in point is the effort of Fredrick Wyatt, colored, of Ottawa, to establish his title to a portion of an estate in Kentucky, will by a Kentucky slave owner to his slaves, and lost to the legatees through the ante-bellum prejudice against encouraging independence among the colored people. Wyatt is quite well known in Ottawa as a colored gardner. He has a well improved place on the east side, and is recognized as a thrifty, prosperous negro. The interesting facts in connection with his story of a lost estate are developed by inquiry in the probate court of the county where Wyatt was held as a slave. In the early fifties William Mitchison, a wealthy planter of Caldwell county, Kentucky, made his will, a copy of which instrument is now in the possession of Wyatt's attorney, W. S. Jenks. After providing liberally for his wideow, Mitchison willed that a farm of some 320 acres be permanently set aside for the use o fhis slaves, to be colonized and operated by them, but not to be sold or divided. It was provided that the debts against the estate, if any existed after the other personal property was disposed of were to be paid by the proceeds of the slaves' labor, the slaves being hired out for that puprose, and that the slaves were to be set free after the place was freed from encumbrance. At that time they were to enter in to the ownership and posession of the farm, which is said to have been, and to still be, one of the richest in Kentucky. The will expressly stated that the slaves were not to be sold. A codicil to the will notes the birth of two boys to plantation negresses who were evidently prime favorites of the household. One of the boys is referred to as "Fredrick, son of Miranda." The will stipulates that neither baby was to be held as a slave. Mitchison died a few years later, and southern prejudice against negroes at once asserted itself. As soon as the terms of the will were known an emphatic protest was raised in the neighborhood. Three execturos were named in the will, and one was in favor of carrying out its terms. he was shot down while at work int he field, and his murder settled the fate of the negroes. There were no debts against the estate, but the remaining executors sold the slaves, and disposed of all the property. Fredrick was six years old, and was sold for seventy-five dollars to a man named Wyatt, whose name he took. his father brought four hundred dollars at the same sale. There is at this time no prospect that Wyatt could establish the claim to the property on which his master expected to establish the negro colony. The statute of limitations would probably bar any action or claim to the place from the present owners. Wyatt's only course under the law would be to locate on the grounds and claim ownership to it and he is well enough acquainted with southern temperment toward the negro to avoid any such proceeding. He is not looking for a burial ground. It is interesting to note that Wyatt, his older brother--now located in Illinois--and several other of the slaves who were deprived of their property have grown prosperous. The two executors who handled the affiars of the estate--one of them being a brother of the testator--were ruined by the war and are said to have retrograded to that class familiarly known in the south as "poor white trash." |
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