Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/168

 y, who is now

about twelve years of age, was born in said State of Missouri, and whilst the said father and mother were the property of this Respondent, and hence the said Jenny was the property of this Respondent That in the year 1844 this Respondent brought the said slaves father, mother and child, to this territory as his servants and property

That the said James was born in this Territory, in February 1845, and the said Roxanna somewhere about February 1847 and the said parents of the said children were till after the birth of the last mentioned child in the possession of this Respondent as his servants and slaves, and so continued till in or about the year 1849 That about the spring of the year 1849 the said Robin Holmes the father of the said children left this Territory and went to California and the mother of said children remained at the residence of this Respondent, till the spring of the year 1850, but not controlled as a slave.

That about the first of March 1850 the said Robin having returned from California, and his said wife having given birth to another child, an agreement was entered into between the said Robin and this Respondent, to the effect following, to wit:

That the said Robin and his wife were to be and remain henceforth free that they were to take their youngest child, and keep it And that this Respondent was to keep all the rest of the said children (together with one which has since died, and which was the oldest of the said family of children) and to hold them until they respectively became of age according to the laws of this Territory, to wit, the males twenty one years of age and the females eighteen years of age to hold them not as slaves but as wards.

That this Respondent has kept the said children at a heavy expense while they were young and their service of little or no value And now, since they have arrived at an age when their services will be of some benefit the Respondent insists that he has a right to retain the said children during their minority, as a part compensation and remuneration for the expenditures made by him in their behalf.

That this Respondent was advised after it became settled that the people would not be permitted to hold