Jones V. Bennet: The Bifurcated Legal Status of Early Nineteenth Century Free Blacks in Kentucky
The Modern American › Núm. V-1, Abril 2009
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Resumen
I. Introduction. II. 1801-1830: Property of William Chenault. III. Manumission: Pathway to Freedom. IV. The Not so Pretty Existence of free Blacks in Kentucky. V. Anti-Slavery Pressure from the Baptist Church. VI. Conclusion.
Texto
I. Introduction
In 1829, Henry Clay, then President of the American Colonization Society for the Free People of Color, pronounced:
"Of all the descriptions of our population, and of either portion of the African race, the free people of color are, by far, as a class, the most corrupt, depraved and abandoned . . . . They are not slaves, and yet they are not free. The laws, it is true, proclaim them free; but prejudices, more powerful than any law, deny them the privileges of freemen."
This pronouncement accurately describes the existence of Levi Jones. Jones, a free man of color, was emancipated by his master, William Chenault, on the 31st of May, 1830, in Madison County, Kentucky.
On May 8, 1840, the Court of Appeals of Kentucky decided the case of Levi Jones versus John and Samuel Bennet.
II. 1801-1830: Property of William Chenault
William Chenault, Jr. was a member of one of the oldest families in Kentucky. His father, William Chenault, Sr., served in the Revolutionary war under General George Washington.
Before Chenault settled in Kentucky, and after the Revolutionary War, the government issued soldiers land grants, encouraging the rapid settlement of Kentucky following the war.
William Chenault, Jr. was just thirteen when his parents brought him to Kentucky.
The African-American presence in early Kentucky was due primarily to the transplant of Virginia's model of slavery into the "trans-Appalachian West."
Under these laws, some slaves preceded their owners into the Kentucky frontier; clearing the land, building homes, roads, and other structures, and planting and harvesting crops. Other slaves entered Kentucky with their masters and, once settled, performed essentially the same domestic and agricultural tasks.
The African-American presence in early Kentucky was due primarily to the transplant of Virginia's model of slavery into the "trans-Appalachian West."
III. Manumission: Pathway to Freedom
Manumission was a method whereby enslaved blacks could be emancipated. One of the earliest Kentucky statutes on the issue passed in 1800, providing that the last will of any person 18 years of age or older could emancipate slaves.
Just as early as slaves came to Kentucky, some were being manumitted. In 1782, even before Kentucky officially became a state, an enslaved man named Monk Estill helped prevent the destruction, by American Indians, of Estill's Station, his owner's property. Monk attempted to find Captain James Estill to warn him of the attack, and found him near present day Mt. Sterling just as the ambush began. Though Captain Estill was killed, Monk brought his body back to the station. For his bravery, Captain Estill's oldest son freed Monk through a process of "manumission." Monk moved to Fort Boonesboro wherein he became a skilled maker of gunpowder and the father of the first free African-American child to be born in Kentucky.
In 1830, William Chenault's cousin, John Bennet,
The large number of slaves in Kentucky and the decreasing profits of slavery might have encouraged the practice of manumission. As the economic demands for more slaves increased in southern states, both Kentucky and Virginia's slave markets responded to the cotton belt's demands. In 1840, Robert Wick- liffe, the largest slave owner in Fayette County, Kentucky, bragged to the Kentucky Legislature that up to 6,000 slaves per year were being sold to southern states from Kentucky.
It was not uncommon for emancipated slaves to leave Kentucky. Upon manumission, most southern states did not allow freed slaves to reside within their borders. In 1691, Virginia enacted a law insisting that no Negro be set free unless the owner paid for his transportation out of the colony.
Such statutes tended to discourage manumission. Undoubtedly, had Levi and Sally Ann's story taken place in the 1850's, their manumission would have been unlikely because of the increased financial responsibilities placed on the owners. Between 1830 and 1850, the number of free blacks in Kentucky doubled, increasing from 4,917 to just over 10,000. According to the Federal Census of 1860, however, the number of free blacks stagnated, suggesting that few slaves were manumitted after the laws were toughened in 1851.
While the date of Levi and Sally Ann's union is unknown, marriage between free blacks would not become legal until 1825. Moreover, the law absolutely did not recognize marriages between free blacks and slaves. The progeny of such unions assumed the status of the mother. As a result, many male slaves who achieved financial success by hiring themselves out purchased the freedom of their wives first, preventing their children being born into slavery.
Regardless of his age or condition, a slave in Kentucky could be manumitted provided that his or her master posted sufficient security that the slave would not become a public charge.
The fact that free black owners, such as Jones, did not always emancipate their purchased relatives also proved problematic. Most free blacks purchased their slave relatives with the intent of emancipating them, but the threat of re-enslavement was possible.
IV. The Not so Pretty Existence of free Blacks in Kentucky
"The liberty of colored free men has not been sufficiently guarded by the laws of the United States, nor any of the separate states."
Around the date of Levi's manumission, Bennet, who was about to move to Missouri, entered into an agreement with
When John Bennet returned to Kentucky in the autumn of 1831, Levi was unable to pay the first installment for the purchase of his children.
Almost a year later, in May of 1832, Bennet's son, Samuel, who still lived in Kentucky, procured from his father a document purporting to be a bill of sale for the four children for the sum of three hundred and thirty-six dollars-the sum then due from Jones according to the terms of the contract.
Free people of color in Kentucky constantly feared kidnapping. Although the state had enacted anti-kidnapping laws, they were scarcely enforced and thus of little use. Kidnapping cases were difficult to prosecute because they often involved interstate travel.
Levi instituted his case not in a criminal court, but rather in chancery, a court authorized to apply principles of equity as opposed to law. In 1836, Levi filed a bill in Chancery against John and Samuel Bennet. He prayed for a decree upon equitable terms, which would return his children to him as restitution.
In court, free blacks operated from an inferior position to their white counterparts. Freemen did possess some important rights such as the right to trial by jury, the right to challenge jury selections, and the right to offer evidence in their own behalf.
The Chief Justice from the Circuit Court for Madison County thought otherwise. He was of the opinion that Levi was entitled to relief. In regards to the jurisdiction argument, the court reasoned that:
A court of equity has jurisdiction to enforce a contract for movable property, or to coerce its restoration to its rightful owner, from whom it has been taken, whenever the property is of such a peculiar character that the recovery of damages, in lieu of the specific thing, would be but an inadequate or inappropriate remedy . . . .
And there can be no stronger case of that class, than where a parent brings a bill to coerce the restoration of a child that has been abducted from him, and is held in slavery.
The Court found that "the abduction and detention of the children by Samuel Bennet, were unauthorized and tortious."
The Court further held that Samuel Bennet should "be compelled to pay damages for the wrongful detention, and make restitution of the children, upon receiving the price which his father would have been entitled to receive from Levi, and the accruing interest thereon from the date of the contract in 1830."
The Jones family's peace was short lived. In 1845, just five years after the chancery held that Levi was entitled to the return of his family, two of his children, Betsy, 23, and Emily, 19, along with Betsy's two children, Spicy and Edmund, were in the Woodford Circuit Chancery Circuit Court suing again for their freedom.
Free people of color in Kentucky constantly feared kidnapping.
Unfortunately, Levi Jones' children had been levied upon for debts and were about to be sold back into slavery to either Robert Adams or Benjamin Bailey to satisfy the judgments. They prayed to the chancery court for an injunction and a declaration of freedom.
Free blacks in Kentucky walked a thin line between living as freemen and living in bondage. Freemen always had to be prepared to prove their legal status; they had to walk with their "free papers" or face jail time.
Free black children could also be bound out as apprentices if their parents were found to have no visible employment. Although when the Kentucky legislature enacted this law children bonded out had to be provided education, by 1843 the legislature had removed the requirement.
V. Anti-Slavery Pressure from the Baptist Church
Undoubtedly, slave owners were motivated by a variety of factors-financial, religious, sentimental, moral and ethical-to free slaves. Baptists in Virginia expressed opposition to slavery as early as 1787.
Between 1829 and 1859, the Kentucky Colonization Society for Free People of Color helped 658 free blacks leave the state and settle in Liberia.
"The colonization movement enabled influential slave- holding politicians like Henry Clay to favor sending free blacks and manumitted slaves back to Africa, while allowing them to also distance themselves from supporting the principle of immediate abolition."
VI. Conclusion
In Kentucky, when the state revised its constitution in 1799, free blacks further lost rights. They were "discriminated against and excluded from enjoying key citizenship rights, including being prohibited from voting, holding public office, and serving in the militia and from bearing arms."
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