Overseers v. Baker's Executors
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
ERROR to Cumberland county. “ Hope” had been a slave of Philip Baker. In 1818 an order of two justices, adjudicating him to be chargeable to the county of Cumberland as a pauper, was made ; and he was removed to the poorhouse. In 1820 the county of Cumberland was divided, and the poorhouse was in tliat part which was called Perry county.
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ERROR to Cumberland county. “ Hope” had been a slave of Philip Baker. In 1818 an order of two justices, adjudicating him to be chargeable to the county of Cumberland as a pauper, was made ; and he was removed to the poorhouse. In 1820 the county of Cumberland was divided, and the poorhouse was in tliat part which was called Perry county. The act dividing the county provided, that the poor of Cumberland should continue in Perry until 1824; that Cumberland might provide a place for her poor in the mean time. No such provision was made; but the commissioners of the county gave notice to the…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Sergeant, J.
The act for the gradual abolition of slavery, of the 1st of March 1780, after providing in section 5 for the recording of slaves, enacts in section 6, that unless the owner, before the slave attains his twenty-eighth year, executes and records a deed of manumission, he shall be liable “ to-the overseers of the poor of the city, township or district to which any such negro or mulatto shall become chargeable,” for the expenses and costs they may be put to through the neglect of the owner. The negro Hope, being twenty-one years of age at the…
2Cited by1 opinion
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