Mann v. North Carolina

In my class we had to perform a Mock Trial. The case at hand that we used was the case of Mann v. North Carolina. In the actual case, Elizabeth Jones owned a slave named Lydia and she hired her out for work to John Mann of Chowan County. Mann shot and wounded Lydia when she tried to escape a lashing. Mann was found guilty of battery by a jury of twelve white men drawn from his town and the court (Superior Court Judge Joseph J. Daniel) assessed a five-dollar fine. The North Carolina Supreme Court overruled the conviction on the grounds that slaves were the absolute property of their owners who could not be punished at common law unless the legislature authorized such punishment.


Although the case already took place, our job was to argue from a certain perspective from one point of view. My group represented North Carolina. My job was to argue why the conviction shouldn't be overruled from a law perspective.


This was my argument:

There should be absolutely no question on whether or not Mann's fine was justified. Mann had absolutely no right to go to this extent in stopping the slave. Mrs. Jones hired out Lydia to Mr.Mann. Based solely on this fact, Mann does not have the right to go to this extent in harming the slave.  He had no right to do this because only the slave owner has absolute power over the slave and the right to use as much force as they deem necessary to control their slave. Since Mann is not her owner, he must only treat the slave as the owner would. We can infer that Mrs. Jones would not have gone to such an extent in stopping the slave because It is a well-known fact that it cost on average 2000 dollars for a good slave hand. In Mrs. Jones hiring out Lydia we can see that she must be a very well slave hand.  People only hire out good slaves because they know they can get much more money for them based off of the value of their work. She wouldn’t have gone to this extent in fear of damaging the slave and diminishing her value. Therefore, in shooting Lydia Mann has completely gone against Mrs. Jones wishes on how her slave shall be treated, and also interferes with Mrs. Jones income because no one is going to want to hire a damaged slave. Also, slaves are seen as property. Therefore, making Lydia property of Mrs. jones. In the act of Mann shooting Lydia, he has committed destruction of property which is a crime that he must pay for. Let it be known that Mr. Mann is not a slave owner himself. He has had bankruptcy which left him very poor. This is important because in having no money Mann cannot afford to own slaves which simply goes to show that Mann has no knowledge on how he can treat a slave. Mann should have talked to Mrs. Jones prior to paying for Lydia to go over what he can and can’t do because she is the formal owner of the slave, but he failed to do this which goes to show just how negligent he is.. This goes to show that Mann must pay these repercussions because not only did he commit destruction of property, but he also damaged a slave that was not his own which diminishes the value of the slave and the income of Mrs. Jones.




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