Dolly conveyed in Seaborn Owens Deed of Trust

This post is part of an ongoing project to record names of enslaved people of Greene County, Georgia I find in historical records. 

March Term 1860. Georgia, Greene County. 

To the Hon. Iverson L. Harris, Judge of the Superior Courts for the Ocmulgee Circuit.

The petition of Seaborn I. Owens respectfully shows unto your Honor that heretofore to wit, on the 25th day of February in the year 1856, he executed a Deed of Trust to himself as Trustee for his wife Mary Owens and his children Martha J., Emily A., and Mary E. and any children that he might thereafter have born unto him by his Wife, conveying a certain negro girl slave Dolly, about eleven years of age. The original of which said Deed of Trust is herewith annexed.

And your petitioner further shows unto your Honor, that at the time of the execution of said Deed of Trust, he was and is at this time free from debt. And your petitioner further shows that it will be greatly for the interest of his said wife and children to change said Trust property having been offered a large sum of money for said negro girl, the interest upon which said sum would double the present hire of said negro girl and in view of the uncertainty of life, he is unwilling to risk the whole estate of his said wife and children in the life of said negro.

Therefore, your petitioner prays your Honor to grant an order allowing him to sell said negro girl and invest the proceeds of said sale for the uses and purposes set forth in said Deed of Trust and as in duty bound will ever pray, etc.

Geo. O. Dawson, Petitioners Atty.

Upon hearing the foregoing petition of Seaborn I. Owens, Trustee etc. to change trust property. It is ordered by the Court that said Trustee be empowered to sell said negro slave Dolly and invest the proceeds of said sale in stocks or such other securities and notes as are of marketable par value, in the name of said Seaborn I. Owens, Trustee as aforesaid and in accordance with the provisions of said deed of Trust, thereby preserving the identity of said Trust property.

Reference

Greene County, Georgia, Court Minutes 1856–1868, image 228, FamilySearch.