Isaac Lamb

Records of the North Carolina Supreme Court, Document Number 7540:

In 1824 or 1825, slave owner Hugh Lamb left his wife, who, he said, "was guilty of adulterous intercourse with a negro slave," and took his two daughters to live with his brother Isaac Lamb. As payment, he conveyed to his brother, in a trust estate, six slaves and his 350-acre farm, stipulating in return that he and his daughters would be "maintained and supported" from the hires and profits of the slaves until he "departed this life." Then, "the whole of said property" would be conveyed to his daughters. In 1829, Hugh and his daughters moved in with his brother-in-law Edward Pigford, transferring the trust accordingly. Later, when his daughters marry, they receive several slaves, but in 1851 Hugh Lamb charges that he is no longer being "maintained and supported" by Pigford and sues his brother and brother-in-law, who nevertheless retains some of the slaves. Lamb is illiterate, and has "always possessed an understanding inferior to most of his fellow men."