Inhabitants of Edgartown v. Inhabitants of Tisbury
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Assumpsit to recover the expenses incurred by the plaintiffs in the support of Nancy Michaels, a colored pauper, whose settlement was alleged to be in Tisbury.
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Assumpsit to recover the expenses incurred by the plaintiffs in the support of Nancy Michaels, a colored pauper, whose settlement was alleged to be in Tisbury. At the trial, in the court of common pleas, before Hoar, J. the plaintiffs offered to prove that Rebecca, a colored woman, was brought from Africa, before the year 1780, and sold to, and owned as a slave by Cornelius Basset, of Chilmark, and was actually a slave, long before the adoption of the state constitution ; that she was never married, but that, in 1772, she gave birth to Nancy, the pauper; that said Basset died in 1778, and…
1Opinion of the CourtMetcalf, J.
While slavery existed in Massachusetts, the settlement of the slave followed that of the master. Dighton v. Freetown, 4 Mass. 539. Therefore, if the pauper, for whose support this action is brought, was the slave of Joseph Allen, whose settlement was in Tisbury, her settlement is there, and the action can be maintained. But, as she was born in Massachusetts, she was freeborn, although her mother was a slave. And she could not be held as a slave by Allen, under the sale made to him. Littleton v. Tuttle, 4 Mass. 128, note; Lanesborough v. Westfield, 16 Mass. 74; 2 Dane Ab. 211-213; 2 Kent Com.…
2Cases cited5 opinions
- Inhabitants of Winchendon v. Inhabitants of HatfieldMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1808
- Inhabitants of Bridgewater v. Inhabitants of DartmouthMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1808
- Inhabitants of Andover v. Inhabitants of CantonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1816
- Inhabitants of Dighton v. Inhabitants of FreetownMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1808
- Inhabitants of Needham v. Inhabitants of NewtonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1815