The William Turner lawsuit began on December 4, 1848 when William Turner filed a formal complaint against Samuel L. Anderson, William Sheppard and James Fussell. Phebe, a fourteen-year old enslaved girl was traded to William Turner for another enslaved girl named Dianna. Phebe was later found to be "laboring under a virulent gonorrhea". Mr. W. Turner alleged that Phebe's sellers knew of the disease and demanded compensation. Between June 11 and June 15, 1849, Dr. William Warren and several witnesses testified to Phebe's condition. Dr. William Warren examined Phebe and testified that she had "not yet arrived at the age of womanhood" and that she reported "her purchasers had given her the disease" and "forced her to illicit connections." Phebe's testimony was largely ignored throughout the trial. One of the largest discrepancies, however, was over Phebe's actual owner. A slave trader named Johnson was with Mr. Anderson and Mr. Fussell at the time of Phebe's being sold. Dianna was supposedly taken off to Mississippi by Anderson and since there was no way to reverse the trade and end the dispute, Phebe's condition at sale needed to be established.

Several witnesses testified to Phebe's condition-some testified that she was sound and without ailment. The plaintiff's children testified that Mr. S. Anderson gave Phebe a dime to dance and that they heard Mr. Anderson deeming Phebe sound after that performance while their mother did not want an unsound enslaved person in her home. These discrepancies continued throughout the case. Several attempts were made to establish what Phebe's value at sale would have been if she were sound or unsound. The case was resolved in September 1852 when Phebe was deemed to be unsound and the defendants were ordered to pay the Plaintiff, William Turner $300 and court fees. Phebe received nothing as a result of the lawsuit.

In 1946, Emma Inman Williams published Historical Madison: the story of Jackson and Madison County, Tennessee from the Moundbuilders to World War I. Phebe's sale was mentioned in a photocopied document. It references "Phebe, aged about thirteen years" who was purchased by Samuel Anderson in a group with 34 other enslaved people in November 1847 (p. 202). The book also makes mention of some of the men who were involved in the lawsuit-John Fussell, who was fined $10 for contempt of court for having "had a fight in the court yard with one certain John Montgomery" and a reference to William Johnson who, in 1867, entered into an agreement with the state of Tennessee to import formerly-enslaved, freed laborers from South Carolina to Tennessee.