NorthShore Slavery

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Jenny Slew vs. John Whipple, Jr. (1766)

In 1766, Jenny Slew sued John Whipple, Ipswich (Hamilton), on basis that her mother was white. She lost her case in the ECCP case but appealed and won in the SCJ in 1766.

Details

• Plaintiff: Jenny Slew
• Defendant: John Whipple Jr
• Plaintiff's Attorney: Benjamin Kent
• Defendant's Attorney: Edmund Trowbridge Esq.
• Attorney for Original Defendant on Appeal: Jeremiah Gridley

Essex Court of Common Pleas

• March 1765 Ipswich: Case initially filed

• July 1765 Salem: Case heard and continued
• • Justice: Honorable John Choate Esq
  • Justice: Caleb Cushing Esq.
  • Justice: Nathaniel Ropes Esq.
  • Justice: Andrew Oliver Jun. Esq.
• Disposition:
  Deft's plea of "no such person in nature a Jenny Slew of Ipswich aforesaid Spinster. Overruled by Court so Deft plead "Not Guilty" and put himself on the Country. Cont'd.
  

• September 1765 Newburyport: Case disposed
• • Justice: Honorable John Choate Esq
  • Justice: Caleb Cushing Esq.
  • Justice: Nathaniel Ropes Esq.
  • Justice: Andrew Oliver Jun. Esq.
• Disposition:
  Judgment for the Defendant. Appealed.
  

Superior Court of Judicature

• November 1765 Salem: Case heard and continued

• June 1766 Ipswich: Case continued

• November 1766 Salem: Case disposed
• • Chief Justice: Honorable Thomas Hutchinson Esq.
  • Associate Justice: Benjamin Lynde Jr., Esq.
  • Associate Justice: Peter Oliver Esq.
  • Associate Justice: John Cushing Esq.
• Disposition:
  Judgment for the original plaintiff.
  Monetary Damages: 4-0-0
  
• Participants:
• Caleb Balch Beverly
• Summonsed and Reimbursed: Reimbursed for 20 miles travel and two days in court.
• Hannah Dodge Beverly
• Summonsed and Reimbursed: Reimbursed for 20 miles travel and two days in court.
• Sarah Herrick Beverly
• Summonsed and Reimbursed: Reimbursed for 20 miles travel and two days in court.
• Anthony Wood Beverly
• Summonsed and Reimbursed: Reimbursed for 20 miles travel and two days in court.

• Notes

  
  Citation: Emily Blanck, Tyrannicide: Forging an American Law of Slavery in Prevolutionary South Carolina and Massachusetts (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2014).
  
  Citation: George H. Moore, Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1866), 114 - 124.
  
  Citation: Adams, John, L. Kinvin Wroth, and Hiller B. Zobel. Legal Papers of John Adams. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1965. Volume 2. Web Page: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2017. http://www.masshist.org/publications/apde2/volume-toc?series=lja&vol=2

• Sources

• Please review Court Formalities to understand the court documents. Note especially that phrases such as 'with force & arms' and specific dates for keeping the Plaintiff in servitude are formal statements not meant to reflect actual occurences.
• 
• Court of Common Pleas court costs reckoning. Shows costs for all three court proceedings and reimbursement for two witnesses.
• 
• Bond posted by Benjamin Kent on behalf of Slew in order to appeal lower court ruling in favor of Whipple.
• 
• ECCP record of judgment.
• 
• Initial writ filed by Jenny Slew against John Whipple
• 
• John Whipple's response to intial writ filed by Jenny Slew
• 
• John Adams' notes on November 1766 Superior Court proceedings.
• 
• ECCP costs with SCJ costs for November 1765 (Salem), June 1766 (Ipswich) and November 1766 (Salem) proceedings. One witness was reimbursed for the November 1765 proceeding, two for the June 1766 proceedings and four for the November 1766 proceedings.
• 
• Witness writs and requests for reimbursements.
• 
• Complete SCJ files.
• 
• SCJ judgment.
• 
• John Adams Diary entry November 5, 1766. Mentions observing Jenny vs Slew appeal. Describes N.P Sargeant.