By this act, the attorney employed by the State for the slave could sue the master for his fee. This provision was repealed in 1838, and the county became liable for the cost of the suit, unless the prosecution appeared frivolous or malicious, in which case the prosecutor paid the cost of trial.[26] Toward the close of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, there were some changes made in the legal procedure adopted in 1835. The right of appeal in all cases from the justice’s court was restored to the master by an act of 1848.[27] The state in 1858 reverted to a former method of indictment of the slave.[28] Five creditable persons could file an accusation of insurrection or conspiracy to kill against a slave, and the judge of the circuit court could empower the jury to try the slave without waiting for a regular term of the court. These changes in the slave’s legal status were the delayed response of legal institutions to the movements in politics, economics, and religion in vogue in the early thirties.[29] II. DISABILITIES OF SLAVES— A. _To make a Contract._ The slave could not make a legal contract except for his freedom or with his master’s consent. The slave in such contracts was regarded as the agent of the master.[30] The courts, however, would enforce a contract made by a slave with his masters for his freedom. In the case of Porter v. Blackmore, the supreme court of the state held that such a contract established a vested right to freedom, and that “no one but the State can take advantage of it, not even the owner or master, after the right is once vested. A court of chancery, if the right is once vested, will interpose to prevent its defeat.”[31] B. _To Take Property by Devise, Descent, or Purchase._ The slave was regarded as personal property in Tennessee and what he owned belonged to the master.[32] He could not receive property by inheritance or donation, nor buy, sell, or dispose of anything, unless his master consented.[33] Washington Turner, a free negro, died in 1853, leaving his estate to his wife and children. The children were the issue of a slave mother. Judge McKinney, in a case involving the will of Turner, said: “It is clear that the children of the testator being slaves, with no rights of freedom, present or prospective, are incapable in law of taking any benefit under the will.”[34] A slave while in a state of inchoate freedom could lay claim to either personal or real property.[35] Judge Catron maintained that it was inconsistent with the liberal slave code of the State not to consider a slave’s rights to property in connection with a claim to freedom.[36] C. _To Be a Witness._ The slave never acquired the right of being a witness against a white man.[37] The denial of this right was based on the slave’s light regard for his word, his ignorance, and racial prejudice. His paganism was also a factor.[38]