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Alabama Courts and the Administration of Slavery

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Alabama Courts and the Administration of Slavery ALABAMA COURTS AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF SLAVERY, 1820-1860 Except where reference is made to the work of others, the work described in this dissertation is my own or was done in collaboration with my advisory committee. This dissertation does not include proprietary or classified information. _________________________________ Daniel Reese Farnell, Jr. Certificate of Approval: _______________________ ________________________ Patience Essah Anthony Gene Carey, Chair Associate Professor Associate Professor History History _______________________ ________________________ Robin F. A. Fabel Gerard S. Gryski Professor Professor History Political Science _______________________ George T. Flowers Interim Dean Graduate School ALABAMA COURTS AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF SLAVERY, 1820-1860 Daniel Reese Farnell, Jr. A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama August 4, 2007 ALABAMA COURTS AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF SLAVERY, 1820-1860 Daniel Reese Farnell, Jr. Permission is granted to Auburn University to make copies of this dissertation at its discretion, upon request of individuals or institutions and at their expense. The author reserves all publication rights. Copyright 2007 by Daniel Reese Farnell, Jr. ____________________________ Signature of Author August 4, 2007 ____________________________ Date of Graduation iii VITA Daniel Reese Farnell, Jr., son of Daniel R. Farnell and Carolyn W. Farnell, was born on January 22, 1957 in Opelika, Alabama. He attended Auburn University from 1975 to 1978, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, graduating in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1983. He was admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 1984 and is a licensed attorney. He entered Graduate School at Auburn University in September 1998 to pursue doctoral studies in history. iv DISSERTATION ABSTRACT ALABAMA COURTS AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF SLAVERY, 1820-1860 Daniel Reese Farnell, Jr. Doctor of Philosophy, August 4, 2007 (J.D., University of Alabama, 1983) (B.A., University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1980) 299 Typed Pages Directed by Anthony Gene Carey The examination of contemporary legal materials from the slaveholding states, particularly Alabama, shows considerable official involvement of the legislature and the courts in the management of slavery, going well beyond conventional notions of the institution of slavery as based and sustained mainly on private, self-help controls and remedies invoked by planters and their agents. Utilizing contemporary and current classifications of the standing of slaves as persons and as property as assigned by courts and scholars, statutes and cases in on the subject of criminal law and procedure are examined, with slaves as accused and victims. v The inquiry then turns to civil cases, with emancipations and suits for freedom as a starting point, under which slaves attain limited status and recognition as legal persons. The discussion concludes with other civil matters, concerned with slaves as property and the rights of the slaveholding class in them, augmented by fugitive slave acts and slave patrols acting as adjuncts of the court system and slaveholders. Original, primary legal materials strongly corroborate current legal-historical studies of the institution of slavery as well as the consensus of historical scholarship spanning several generations and encompassing numerous sources and disciplines, which hold that the institution of slavery and the goals, objects, and processes of government were indivisible, mutually dependent, cooperative, and dedicated to the preservation of slavery, as expressed through the legislature and the legal system. The resulting historical evidence resolves and confirms perennial questions about the future viability of slavery in 1860 and the inevitability of the Civil War, showing that the effects of slavery were becoming more onerous and pernicious for African Americans and society as a whole over time, and the legal system, a fundamental institution of society functioning as a vehicle of slaveholding interests, was so deeply committed to the preservation of slavery that no peaceful or meaningful reform directed to the abolition of slavery was possible. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Daniel R. Farnell and Carolyn W. Farnell, for their continued inspiration and support for this and all the other worthwhile projects I have undertaken over the years. I would like to thank Dr. Anthony Eugene Carey, my major professor and committee chair for his continued guidance, support, patience, and advice from the time I began as a graduate student at Auburn in 1998. I also express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Patience Essah and Dr. Robin F. A. Fabel for serving on my committee and offering their kind and insightful comments and suggestions, and Dr. Gerard S. Gryski of the Department of Political Science for reading and evaluating the manuscript. I thank the entire Department of History of Auburn University for their generous moral and financial support for my graduate studies, including, but not limited to, the award of the Marguerite S. Scharnagel Fellowship making this dissertation possible. I am also grateful to the Friends of the Alabama Archives, who provided a dissertation fellowship. vii Style manual used: A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Sixth Edition) by Kate Turabian. Computer software used: Microsoft Word 2002. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS . .xi INTRODUCTION . 1 Chapter 1. COLONIAL, TERRITORIAL, AND STATE CODES AS A SOURCE OF STATE LAW AFFECTING SLAVES AND THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY. 18 2. ALABAMA POLITICAL SYSTEM AND COURT ORGANIZATION IN THE SLAVERY ERA. 63 3. THE CIVIL STATUS OF SLAVES AND FREE BLACKS: MANUMISSION, EMANCIPATION, AND THE SUIT FOR FREEDOM. .89 4. APPLYING THE PENAL CODE AND THE SLAVE CODE IN THE TRIAL COURTS: THE CITY COURT OF MOBILE AS A PARADIGM OF CIRCUIT COURTS, 1846-1860. .116 5. INFERIOR COURTS AND THE TRIAL OF STATUS OFFENSES: MAYOR'S COURT AS AN EXTENSION OF THE JUSTICE COURT. .159 6. SLAVES AND CIVIL CLAIMS: HIRING, NEGLIGENCE, SALES, COLLECTIONS, AND ESTATES. .186 ix 7. SLAVE PATROLS, STATE REMEDIES, AND THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACTS. .232 CONCLUSION. 257 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY . 278 x TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS DESCRIPTION EXPLANATION §, §§ Symbol denoting section or sections of constitutional provision, code, act, or statute ADAH Alabama Department of Archives and History Aikin’s Digest Digest of the Acts of Alabama, compiled by John G. Aikin, 1833, supplemented 1836 Ala. Alabama Reports, Supreme Court Ala. Acts Acts of Alabama, Legislative Session Laws, General, Local, and Special, passed in General Assembly convened (House and Senate) Ala. Code Code of Alabama, 1852 Ala. Const. Constitution of Alabama, 1819 Art. Article Cl. Clause Clay’s Digest Digest of the Acts of Alabama, compiled by C.C. Clay, 1843 Const. Constitution F.Cas. Federal Cases, U.S. District and Circuit Courts Ga. Georgia Reports, Supreme Court How. Howard, U.S. Reports, Supreme Court xi LG Record group or series, ADAH Minutes City Court of Mobile, trial docket entries, USA Archives Miss. Mississippi Reports, Errors and Appeals (Supreme Court) Mo. Missouri Reports, Supreme Court Pet. Peters, U.S. Reports, Supreme Court Port. Porter’s Ala. Reports, Supreme Court SG Record group or series, ADAH Stat. Statutes at Large, U.S. Congress Stats. Miss. Terr. Statutes of the Mississippi Territory, Peter Isler, 1816 Stew. & P. Stewart & Porter’s Ala. Reports, Supreme Court Toulmin’s Digest Digest of the Acts of Alabama and the Mississippi Territory, compiled by Harry Toulmin, 1823 U.S. U.S. Reports, Supreme Court U.S. Const. U.S. Constitution Wall. Wallace, U.S. Reports, Supreme Court xii INTRODUCTION The conventional view of the relationship of the government to the institution of slavery in antebellum America is one of a political and legal system which was largely passive, allowing slaveholders to make and enforce the rules governing a “species of property having immense value." 1 The classic phrase frequently associated with slavery, "the peculiar institution 2," in common usage describes the political, legal, economic and social arrangements of slaveholders and the enslaved; in between these extremes in conditions of liberty and status were non-slaveholding whites and free persons of color, the latter the least numerous of these categories. Integral to the operation of the "peculiar institution" was the unique system of legal controls governing not only slaves, but slaveholders and anyone else coming into contact with them. In recent years, historians have been devoting more attention to legal controls governing slavery as a component of the peculiar institution, under which slaves were treated in the law predominantly as chattel property, but sometimes as human beings. The result of this research lends itself to a revised view of slavery, which according to traditional thought, was an institution carried on as a passive activity, but in fact was heavily regulated and supported by state and federal courts. The customary depiction of slavery as an activity carried on substantially free of government regulation or intervention has origins in contemporary discussions of the 1 Mangham v. Cox & Waring, 29 Ala. 81, 88 (1856). 2 Kenneth M. Stampp, The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
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