girl born in the Province in Wenham in 1759, was a ſlave belonging to Emerſon from 1765 to 1776, when ſhe was freed. This deciſion was in November, 1799. Dane's Abridgment, ii., 412. Thus it appears that the Supreme Judicial Court of Maſſachuſetts inſtructed a jury in 1796, by an unanimous opinion, that a negro born in the State before the Conſtitution of 1780, was born free, although born of a female ſlave. Three years later, the ſame Court and the ſame judges (three out of four),[1] held a negro girl born in the province in 1759 to have been the lawful ſlave of a citizen of Maſſachuſetts from 1765 to 1776. In the latter caſe, too, the deciſion of the Court was given on the queſtion of law alone, as preſented upon an agreed ſtatement of the facts. MS. Copy of Court Records
A caſe in Connecticut preſents an illuſtration of great importance. It is that of "a fugitive ſlave, and attempted reſcue, in Hartford, 1703,” of which an account is given in one of Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull's admirable articles on ſome of the Connecticut Statutes. Hiſtorical Notes, etc., No. vi.
"The case laid before the Honorable General Aſſembly in October, 1704," after a ſtatement of facts, etc., proceeds with reaſons for the return of the fugitive, ſome of which we quote.
- ↑
The judges preſent at theſe Terms reſpectively were the following, viz.:
October Term, 1796, in Middlesex: November Term, 1799, in Eſſex: Francis Dana, Chief Juſtice. Francis Dana, Chief Juſtice. Robert Treat Paine, Robert Treat Paine, Increaſe Sumner, Theophilus Bradbury, Nathan Cuſhing, Nathan Cuthing, Juſtices. Thomas Dawes, jr., Juſtices.
