LEGAL DOCUMENT PLACING A LIEN ON 25 ENSLAVED MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN WHO WERE THE PROPERTY OF BENJAMIN SHERROD, DEFENDANT IN A SUIT BROUGHT BY WOODS STACKER & COMPANY: "KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, THAT WE BENJAMIN SHERROD, ALFRED WILEY, AND CHARLES EWING ARE HELD AND FIRMLY BOUND UNTO WOODS STACKER & CO. IN THE PENAL SUM OF SEVENTEEN THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY EIGHT DOLLARS AND 3 1/2 CENTS. . . WHEREAS CHRISTOPHER C. GERVIN, SHERIFF OF LAWRENCE COUNTY, ALABAMA HATH BY VIRTUE OF A WRIT OF FIRI FACIAS ISSUED OUT OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF SAID COUNTY ON THE 30TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 1840 AGAINST THE GOODS AND CHATTELS, LANDS AND TENEMENTS OF THE ABOVE BOUNDEN BENJAMIN SHERROD AT THE SUIT OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED WOODS, STACKER & CO. FOR THE SUM OF EIGHT THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS AND 33 CENTS DAMAGE ... LEVIED ON THE FOLLOWING GOODS AND CHATTELS OF THE ABOVE BOUNDEN BENJAMIN SHERROD TO WIT 25 NEGROS TO WIT JIM, CITHY, JACOB, MARIAH, LOWESA, ROSE, LITTLE JACOB, NELSON, BRADFORD, NELLY, WYATE, ELVIRA, LINSY, ARLY, ISHELL, GEORGE, ELISHAH, BLACK, JIM, AMEY, DAVID, THOMAS, ARCH, SANDY, STEPHEN . NOW IF THE ABOVE BOUNDEN BENJAMIN SHERROD SHALL PROCURE AND DELIVER THE ABOVE NAMED GOODS AND CHATTELS TO THE SAID SHERIFF OR OTHER PROPER OFFICER AT COURTLAND ON THE SQUARE ON THE SECOND MONDAY OF JANUARY 1841 . . . THEN THIS OBLIGATION TO BE VOID... SIGNED AND SEALED IN PRESENCE OF [signed] BENJ. SHERROD, A. WILEY AND CHARLES EWING. "
[Lawrence County, AL: 1840?]. Partly printed document completed in ink manuscript. Document measures approximately 8-1/4" x 11-1/2", matted and famed to 14-1/4" x 17-3/4". Old folds, light toning. Not examined outside of frame. Very Good.
Sherrod obligated himself to pay the penal sum of approximately twice the value of the claim against him if he failed to comply with court orders to deliver the slaves who were the subject of the writ filed by the Woods Stacker Company.
Col. Benjamin Sherrod [1777-1847] was considered the wealthiest man in Lawrence County and possibly all of Alabama, as well as its largest slave owner. He attended the College of William and Mary and the University of North Carolina, and then moved to Georgia. During the War of 1812, was an army contractor with the Commissary Department to the troops of Georgia. After the war, Sherrod settled in Lawrence County, Alabama. He purchased his Cotton Garden Plantation in Courtland and became a successful planter. He purchased several additional plantations; and was the president and chief promoter of the Tuscumbia, Courtland, and Decatur Railroad. At the time of his death, his estate consisted of 700 slaves and 15,000 acres of land in the Tennessee River Valley. His son, William Crawford Sherrod, was a Congressman from Alabama. [Saunders, Col. James Edmonds: EARLY SETTLERS OF ALABAMA, PART I. New Orleans: 1899, pp. 233-237; Goode, G. Brown: VIRGINIA COUSINS, Richmond:1887, pp. 186-187; Census records and military records from Ancestry website, accessed May 8, 2026.]
Woods, Stacker & Company was a prominent iron manufacturing firm primarily known for its massive ironworks in Middle Tennessee. Brothers Joseph [1779-1859], Robert [1786-1842], and James Woods [1793-1875] entered the river trade business after arriving in Nashville. They ran a keelboat and steamboats between Nashville and New Orleans. Around 1825, they turned to private banking and iron. They eventually formed Woods, Stacker & Company. In 1841, Abraham Lincoln was lawyer for the Company in a Sangamon County, Illinois, lawsuit titled Woods, Stacker & Co. v. Taylor. [Hilton, Mark, "Nashville: The World of Speculation", The Historical Marker Database website, accessed May 8, 2026.]. Item #42053
Price: $1,250.00