Case of Passmore Williamson

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ' APPLICATION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, TO THE SUPREME COURT, SITTING IN BANK, AT A SPECIAL SESSION HELD AT BEDFORD, BEDFORD COUNTT, PENNSYLVANIA. On Monday, the 13th day of August, 1855, Messrs. Hopper and G-ilpin appeared before the Supreme Court at Bedford, and presented the following petition; Chief...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ' APPLICATION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, TO THE SUPREME COURT, SITTING IN BANK, AT A SPECIAL SESSION HELD AT BEDFORD, BEDFORD COUNTT, PENNSYLVANIA. On Monday, the 13th day of August, 1855, Messrs. Hopper and G-ilpin appeared before the Supreme Court at Bedford, and presented the following petition; Chief Justice Lewis and Justices Lowrie, Woodward, Knox and Black, being present: ? To the Honorable the Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The petition of Passmore Williamson respectfully sheweth, ?That your Petitioner is a citizen of Pennsylvania, and a resident of Philadelphia; that he is a member of The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and for the Belief of Free Negroes Unlawfully held in Bondage, and for Improving the Condition of the African Race, incorporated by Act of Assembly passed the 8th day of December, A. D. 1789, of which Dr. Benjamin Franklin was the first President, and that he is Secretary of the Acting Committee of said Society. That, on'Wednesday, the 18th day of July last past, your Petitioner was informed that certain negroes, held as slaves, were then at Blood- good's hotel in the city of Philadelphia, having been brought by their master into the State of Pennsylvania, with the intention of passing through to other parts. Believing that the persons thus held as slaves were entitled to their freedom by reason of their having been so brought by their master voluntarily into the State of Pennsylvania the Petitioner, in the fulfilment of the official duty imposed upon him by the practice and regulations of the said Society, went to Bloodgood's hotel for the purpose of apprising the alleged slaves that they were free; and finding that they with their master had left said hotel, and gone on board the steamboat of...