North Carolina Vs. John Mann, a case for the ages

Today we deal with the case of the State of North Carolina v John Mann. The background to the story is Elizabeth Jones who owned a slave named Lydia, hired her out for a year to John Mann of Chowan County. Lydia was unhappy with the arrangement, and at one point Mann decided to punish her, possibly by whipping her. But Lydia escaped during the punishment, and began to run away. Mann shouted to her, ordering her to stop, but Lydia continued to run. Mann then shot and wounded her. This is all according to his story.

It is not uncommon, especially in there in North Carolina, for masters to allow others to hire the services of his or her slaves. This is particularly true of slaves who live in urban areas, or who are independent of their master. This is common practice in the south, but when dealing with slaves and loaning them you are also dealing with the wealth involved with them as well. Unlike other cases where the slave who is loaned out to another person and is returned safely back to his or hers original master, in this case John Mann did not abide to the loan that miss Elizabeth and himself agreed on and instead shot and injured the slave. Now even though a master is allowed to do what ever he wants with a slave, in this case John Mann was not the slaves original master, therefore he had no right to shoot Miss Elizabeth's slave, and injure her property. With John Mann’s idiotic behavior and poor treatment of Miss Elizbeth's slave, this leads to the decrease in the value and wealth of miss Elizabeth's slave.

A quick list of the data that has to be considered in determining the value of a slave's expected revenue would include sex, age, location, how much he or she is likely to produce, and the health and condition of the slave. In this case a badly injured slave would be valued much less than a slave who was healthy and capable of producing work, in the house or on the fields. Here are some numbers that show the true decrease in value for slaves in this area. If the slave was known to be a runaway (-60%),which is true in this case because of the poor treatment of John Mann to Miss Elizabeth's slave, causing the slave to run away in the first place. Another factor is if the slave was crippled (-60%), which could be a likely occurrence because of the horrible medical practices we have in North Carolina, and the damage of the bullet. Depending on the placement of the bullet, Lydia could face infection, and disease which might lead to the amputation of a limb or death. Thankfully Lydia survived. Then finally (-30%) if the slave is physically impaired. As we all know slavery in the United States is an institution that has a large impact on the economic, political and social fabric on this country.

Today $400 is the average slave price and for John Mann, who could have killed Miss Elizabeth's slave, he should own more than just a few dollars to the court, he should respectfully apologize and give the correct amount to Miss Elizabeth and to the Court of North Carolina.

On the other side of this court case, John Mann took the side of Pro-slavery. John Mann and his team focused on the fact that Lydia was his property at the time and therefore he could do whatever he wanted. John's side also brought up the point that he was being charged for battery for a person, but since Lydia is not identified as a person, but instead property, he was in his right doing. John makes his finial argument by saying how in order to have an efficient farm, or plantation you must have order and control with the master.

Sources

• https://www.measuringworth.com/slavery.php

• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/how-slavery-helped-build-a-world-economy

• https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/2662#:~:text=Many%20southerners%20used%20slaves%20as,beginning%20of%20the%20slave%20trade.

• https://www.ncpedia.org/state-v-john-mann

• https://law.jrank.org/pages/2446/State-v-Mann-1829.html