Decision
The decision was a major victory for the abolitionists in the state who had organized to ban slavery only seventeen years earlier. The result was that not just Polly but also all other slaves, including those held prior to Indiana statehood, were freed. There was some anger among the slaveholding community and violence was threatened against Osborn and Kinney, but no action was taken against them. The case also led to the impeachment of the Clark County Justice of the Peace for aiding slaveholders who refused to free their slaves. Many slaveholders, not wanting to lose their valuable slaves, left the state before their slaves could be taken from them.
The 1820 US census revealed that there were 190 slaves in Indiana and 1,200 free blacks, many of whom had been freed by the decision. The number of slaves dropped off dramatically and there were only three slaves in the state in both the 1830 and 1840 censuses.
Read more about this topic: Polly V. Lasselle
Famous quotes containing the word decision:
“Moral choices do not depend on personal preference and private decision but on right reason and, I would add, divine order.”
—Basil Hume (b. 1923)
“There are many things children accept as “grown-up things” over when they have no control and for which they have no responsibility—for instance, weddings, having babies, buying houses, and driving cars. Parents who are separating really need to help their children put divorce on that grown-up list, so that children do not see themselves as the cause of their parents’ decision to live apart.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)
“Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern this nation. This difficult effort will be the “moral equivalent of war,” except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not to destroy.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)