State Vs. Mann

  State Vs. John Mann, a North Carolina Supreme Court from 1829, was "probably the most notorious judicial opinion on the relationship between master and slave ever rendered by a state court", according to a article on NCpedia.org. John Mann, the defendant in this case, was convicted of Battery after shooting a slave woman, Lydia, for fleeing minor punishment. 
    
    Lydia was not one of Mann's own slaves, rather, he had "rented" her from her actual owner for work. 
The courts Judge, Joseph J. Daniel, believed that this punishment was cruel and inhumane, and that he had no right to shoot Lydia because he was not her actual owner. He was judged guilty, and to this, Mann appealed to the court. 
  
    Ruffin's reasoning behind Mann's conviction consisted of two famous quotes said by himself: a slave is "one doomed in his own person, to live without knowledge, and without the capacity to make anything his own, and to toil that another may reap the fruits". A slave should only accept a fate if the master had "uncontrolled authority over the slaves body"

    N.C. court rendered Mann guilty of Non-Fatal Battery. 

State v. John Mann | NCpedia

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