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Belt versus Dalby U.S. 167 (1786)

handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0067 and id is 1 raw text is: SUPREMZ COU&T of Pnnf7flanid. 1786. SBELT verfus DALBY. INCE the a& for the gradual abolition of flavery, a number of S perfons have formed a fociety in Philalphia, for the purpofe of relieving thofe of their fellow creatures, who are held in illegal flavery ; and this aaion is owing to that inflitution, The plaintiff, being the fuppofed iffue of white and mulattoe pa- rents, attended the defendant to Philadelphia in the autumn oft -8 and prefented fo pure a complexion, that the attention of the foci ety was excited, and a writ of Habeas corpus taken out at their in- itance. The boy's right to freedom was firfi argued before Mr. Juflice BRYAN, and, the next day, before the fame judge, and the CHIEF JUSTIcE, at their chambers ; when the facts being difputed, the CHIEF JUSTIcE advifed the counfel to throw the cafe into the form of an a&ion de Homine replegiand. ; and recognizances to ap- pear, being entered into on both fides, a declaration was filed of Sptetmerterm 1784, Rating that the defendant Dalby had taken and kept captive the plaintiff, Frands Belt, whereby the faid plaintiff is injured &c. To this the defendant pleaded, that the plaintiff was his flave, and the plaintiff replied that he was a free man, abhfye hoe &c. rejoinder, and iffue. Upon the trial, which was by a firuck jury, it was given in evidence, that the plaintiff was born it Marylard, of an unmarried mulatte woman; that the grandmother, and the mother, of the plaintiff, are now, and always have been, laves; that he %vas pur- chafed by the defendant's agent, and that the fale was then in dir- pute in law in Maryland; that the plaintiff had not been fix month! in Pennfylvania when the .Habeas Corpus was brought; and the plaintiff himfelif was fhewn to the jury, that they might from his-- appearance draw fome concluflon, that he was, at leaft on one fide, the iffibe of white parents. Mu2fflin, for the defendant, having proved by the laws of Mfarvland, that the boy was a flave in that flate, contended that the Lex Lcci muff determine this, as well as other 1erfonal and mixed acions; and for that do&rine, cited,, among many other authorities, i P. lYill. 420. Prectd. in Chan. 207. He faid that the rule, par/us fe- quitur ventrem, was founded on reafon and the law of nature, and was as applicable in other countries as in Miaryland. r Puffrud. 599. 693- I-u-.In l.. 13 §. 4. and he obfervcd, that cv- ' Pennfylvania, the fLegiflature had taken notice of other Jia Iz- groes and mulattces, to wit, Indian flaves. r Pen. laws. 46. The Attorney General and Lewis argued for the plairltilf. They faid, that, in Pennfylvania, there was no pofitive law for tlavery; though as the a&s of Atimbly took notice ot three forts of laves, nigroes, imulattoes, and indimas. they admitted that, by a reafonable confhrufion, this might be rendered tantamount to 9-n expref, to- leratiort

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