That this is the original bill of sale, from one Silenus to Hugh
Marston, has been fully established. However painful the issue,
nothing remained but to give the case to the jury. All is silent for
several minutes. The judge has rarely sat upon a case of this kind.
He sits unnerved, the pen in his hand refusing to write as his
thoughts wander into the wondrous vortex of the future of slavery.
But the spell has passed; his face shades with pallor as slowly he
rises to address the jury. He has but few words to say; they fall
like death-knells on the ears of his listeners. Some touching words
escape his hesitating lips; but duty, enforced by the iron rod of
slave power, demands him to sustain the laws of the land. He sets
forth the undisputed evidence contained in the bill of sale, the
unmistakeable bond, the singular and very high-handed attempt to
conceal it from the honest creditors, and the necessity of jurymen
restraining their sympathies for the children while performing a
duty to the laws of the land. Having thus made his brief address, he
sits down; the sheriff shoulders his tip-staff, and the august
twelve, with papers provided, are marched into the jury-room, as the
court orders that the case of Dunton v. Higgins be called.
Five minutes have intervened; the clerk calling the case s
interrupted by a knocking at the jury-room door; he stops his
reading, the door is opened, and the sheriff conducts his twelve
gentlemen back to their seats. Not a whisper is heard; the stillness
of the tomb reigns over this high judicial scene. The sheriff
receives a packet of papers from the foreman's hands, and passes
them to the clerk.
"Gentlemen of the jury will please stand up," says that very amiable
functionary. "Have you agreed on your verdict?" The foreman bows
assent.
"Guilty or not guilty, gentlemen?"
"Guilty," says the former, in tones like church-yard wailings:
"Guilty. I suppose that's the style we must render the verdict in?"
The foreman is at a loss to know what style of verdict is necessary.
"Yes," returns the clerk, bowing; and the gentlemen of the jury well
complimented by the judge, are discharged until to-morrow. The
attorney for the defence made a noble, generous, and touching appeal
to the fatherly twelve; but his appeal fell like dull mist before
the majesty of slavery. Guilty! O heavens, that ever the innocent
should be made guilty of being born of a mother! That a mother-that
name so holy-should be stained with the crime of bearing her child
to criminal life!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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