Slaves Using The Courts
In the 19th century, African Americans petitioned various levels of government on a variety of issues. When necessary, they even used the courts. Numerous individuals addressed the topics of personal freedom and economic discrimination in their appeals. To explain his thinking about using the legal avenues open to him, Solomon Bayley wrote: "I thought where the law made liberty the right of any man, he could not be wrong in trying to recover it." Bayley threatened to take his master to court for transporting his family out of state and immediately selling them on arrival in Virginia. His firm stance led to an out-of-court settlement and an arrangement to buy his freedom over time. Bayley later purchased the freedom of his wife, Thamar, and his three children (Spence, Margaret, and Leah). Following the path of Solomon Bayley, many others, when their masters violated the law, successfully petitioned the courts to achieve what was rightfully theirs.
Read more about this topic: Solomon Bayley
Famous quotes containing the words slaves and/or courts:
“When I think of the gold-diggers and the Mormons, the slaves and the slave-holders and the flibustiers, I naturally dream of a glorious private life. No, I am not patriotic.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“But O, young beauty of the woods,
Whom Nature courts with fruits and flowers,
Gather the flowers, but spare the buds;
Lest Flora, angry at thy crime
To kill her infants in their prime,
Do quickly make the example yours;
And ere we see,
Nip in the blossom all our hopes and thee.”
—Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)