I don't think you can call the trials mock trials when you also find trials
instituted by individuals who were enslaved but felt they should be free and
you have prominent white individuals testifying for them; the community for
the most part unless swayed (which it sometimes was/is) by fear or mob fever
tried to be fair. As with any trial or court--you can find (even today)
instances of individuals testifying not to the truth but to what they feel
"someone" wants to hear. I don't think we can make blanket judgments either
for or against the validity of an individual event.
Barbara Vines Little, CG
PO Box 1273
Orange, VA 22960
phone/fax 540-832-3473 (evenings)
[log in to unmask]
CG is a service mark of the Board for Certification of
Genealogists®, used under license by board-certified associates who meet
genealogical competency standards prescribed for those programs.
----- Original Message -----
From: Anne Pemberton <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 5:11 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] slightly OT: Re: Jefferson nephew chops a Black man
to pieces
> I have a problem seeing these as "trials" in the typical meaning of the
> term. The slave would not be able to call other slaves to witness for the
> defendant since they could not honestly pledge to tell the "whole truth
and
> nothing but the truth" if it was not in the master's interest for the
> witnesses to do so. Were there attorneys available to mount a defense for
> a slave? Or was it a mock trial? Was justice served, or just the master's
will?
>
> Anne
>
> At 09:57 AM 1/7/03 -0500, you wrote:
> >I'm not sure what incident you are referring to in regard to Cicley
> >Reynolds, but slaves did have the right to trial and there many examples
in
> >the various county order books. Orange County, for example, documents a
case
> >where a slave was tried (and convicted) of poisoning her master.
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> >[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Reyesuela
> >Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 7:40 PM
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: [VA-HIST] slightly OT: Re: Jefferson nephew chops a Black man
> >to pieces
> >
> >
> ><shudders> It's amazing what horrible things you can find in a past that
> >many (including myself) would like to idealize. I myself was researching
> >Cicley Reynolds (her first name is spelled several different ways on
verious
> >documents), an ancestress and early settler int he Jamestown area, and
aside
> >from learning about her four husbands and the first breach of promise
suit
> >in America, I discovered that she killed a family slave girl for
poisoning
> >and killing the last of her husbands. Whether or not the accusation was
> >true will never be known, because as a slave, the girl never got a trial.
> >Nor will it be know what desperation, madness, or hatred could have
> >motivated such an act.
> >The more I read about the social history of slavery, indentured
servitude,
> >and/or serfdom in any culture--be it Roman, American, Australian, or
> >Russian--the more convinced I am that bound servitude is an instution
that
> >fosters the very worst and most brutal in men, the served and serving
both.
> >
> >
> >
> >---------------------------------
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>
> Anne Pemberton
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.erols.com/stevepem
> http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
>
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