Welcome to the Posey Circuit Court
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Welcome to the Posey Circuit Court
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GAVEL GAMUT
By Judge Jim Redwine Free Polly! Indiana Has No Slavery!
That is what the Indiana Supreme Court decreed in July, 1820, almost 40 years before the United States Supreme Court held that Dred Scott had no enforceable human rights. Posey County’s most honored jurist, Isaac Blackford, and his Indiana Supreme Court of our new state spent little time holding that “Polly, a woman of color” needed no manumission; she was already free as guaranteed by Indiana’s Constitution. Polly had been brought before the Knox County Circuit Court by Lasselle. Lasselle claimed Polly was his duly bought slave whom he had brought into our state before she escaped and sought the law’s protection from him. [I like the way the Indiana Supreme Court referred to the white, male “owner” by a single, untitled name, “Lasselle” just as “Polly” was given only one name by him.] In decreeing that Lasselle’s claim to own a human being in Indiana must be denied, the Court cited Indiana’s Constitution of 1816: “All men are born equally free and independent and have certain natural, inherent and unalienable rights… “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the State….” Justice Blackford who was Posey County’s first Circuit Court Judge and who served on Indiana’s Supreme Court longer than anyone else, joined the unanimous Court in holding that: “The framers of our constitution intended a total and entire prohibition of slavery in this state… Slavery can have no existence in the state of Indiana.” Polly went her own way and Lasselle was assessed the costs of the action. CASE CLOSED! |
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