Page 95

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95

M. Hanks
Answer to the 4th
I have lived in the neighborhood of the com-
plainant not less than seven or eight years, during
which time I have known him to be in the possession
of a number of negroes which I believe to be the ne-
groes spoken of in said Interrogatory. In the spring
of 1844, and I believe on the first Saturday in March
of that year, I attended at the house of Mr. Addison
Ellis, in the county, in pursuance of a previous re-
quest made by the defendant to me, for the purpose of
witnessing the delivery of twenty six negroes by the
Complainant to the Defendant. After I arrived at
said Ellis's, the negroes were brought into the yard of the
dwelling house. I counted said negroes, and believe there were
twenty five of them besides an infant, which I think was
not exceeding a month old. The negroes were ranged
in a row, and I, in company with the complainant
and defendant, and several others, came out of the house
to where the negroes were standing. I was requested to go
there by the defendant. The defendant then said to
the complainant, according to my recollection, "I re-
quire of you to lay your hand on one of these negroes,
and say that you deliver them to me, as my property,
in the presence of these gentlemen." - The complain-
ant then went forward and laid his hand on one of the
negroes, and said, "I deliver these negroes to Mr. Turnip-
seed, as his property." We then started to go back into the house,
and the complainant asked the defendant if he was done
with them, meaning the negroes? The defendant answered,
yes. The Complainant then directed the negroes to go
home, meaning, as I understood it, to the Complain-
ant's house. The negroes then went away, under the direc-
tion of the complainant, and have been on his plantation
ever since. I do not know that the defendant has had