by Tiya Miles
39. Askin Papers, Vol. II, 561–63. Nobbin was recaptured and held at the Askin estate on May’s behalf. May proclaimed that Nobbin was likely afraid of being whipped as punishment. In 1813, John Askin bemoaned the escape of his enslaved woman, Madelaine; Askin Papers, Vol. II, 772.
40. Escapes seem to increase after 1796; however, record keeping improves as well at this moment due to the activity of the court. It is therefore possible that the number of escapes remained nearly constant but that evidence becomes more plentiful because of court recording.
41. As quoted in Judy Jacobson, Detroit River Connections: Historiographical and Biographical Sketches of the Eastern Great Lakes Border Region (Baltimore: Clearfield Company, 1994), 6.1
42. Bald, Detroit’s First, 190; Bald, Great Fire, 4–5.
43. Corporation of the Town of Detroit: Act of Incorporation and Journal of the Board of Trustees, 1802–1805 (Detroit: Printed under the authority of the Common Council of Detroit with an Introduction by C.M. Burton, Historiographer, Burton Historical Collection, 1922), 41.
44. An Act for the Relief and Settlement of the Poor, in Laws of the Territory of Michigan: Laws Adopted by the Governor and Judges, Vol. 1 (Lansing: W. S. George & Co Printers to the State, 1871), 4 vols. University of Michigan Law Library, Source library: Yale Law Library, The Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources, 602. An Act to Regulate Blacks and Mulattoes, and to Punish the Kidnapping of Such Persons, in Laws of the Territory of Michigan, 634. The earliest law addressing indentured servitude in American Detroit was a Michigan Territory law passed in 1809: An Act for Support of the Poor stipulated that servants who had completed their contracts could become lawful settlers but that bringing “paupers” into the territory would be penalized. In 1827, a later territorial law, An Act for the Relief and Settlement of the Poor, stipulated that each town had to maintain its own poor and that individuals who had completed their indentures in the territory were legal settlers. Also in 1827, a more detailed Act Concerning Apprentices and Servants was passed, which assumed voluntary servitude for all servants, required parental or guardian approval for minors, set an age limit at twenty-one years for length of childhood indenture and noted that indentures might have varying specific durations, provided for the jailing of servants who reneged on their duties, and allowed for complaints to be made about mistreatment by masters. Laws of the Territory of Michigan: Laws Adopted by the Governor and Judges. Vol. 2. (Lansing: W. S. George & Co Printers to the State, 1874), pp. 40, 507–508, 595. None of these laws make mention of race. For more on Thornton and Lucie (also Rutha) Blackburn, see: Karolyn Smardz Frost, “Forging Transnational Networks for Freedom: From the War of 1812 to the Blackburn Riots of 1833,” in Karolyn Smardz Frost and Veta Smith Tucker, eds., A Fluid Frontier: Slavery, Resistance, and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2016), 43–66; Norman McRae, “Crossing the Detroit River to Find Freedom,” Michigan History Vol. 67, No. 2 (March/April 1983): 35–39.
45. Bald, Great Fire, 10–11. By adopting a comprehensive fire prevention system, Detroit was borrowing from cities like Philadelphia, which began adopting similar codes in the early 1700s. Arwen P. Mohun, Risk: Negotiating Safety in American Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 12, 17, 24.
46. Bald, Detroit’s First, 197; Bald, Great Fire, 10.
47. Corporation of the Town of Detroit: Act of Incorporation and Journal of the Board of Trustees, 1802–1805 (Detroit: Printed under the authority of the Common Council of Detroit with an Introduction by C.M. Burton, Historiographer, Burton Historical Collection, 1922), 37–38, 59. Henry Berthelet applied for U.S. citizenship and took the oath in Detroit in 1807; In the Matter of the application of Henry Berthelet, in William Wirt Blume, ed., Transactions of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Michigan, 1805–1814, Vol. I (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1935), 404.
48. The United States vs. Margaret White, September 4, 1800, Woodbridge Papers, BHC, DPL. White pled not guilty. Rashauna Johnson, Slavery’s Metropolis: Unfree Labor in New Orleans During the Age of Revolutions (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 115–26.
49. Corporation of the Town of Detroit: Act of Incorporation and Journal of the Board of Trustees, 43.
50. J. May meat and trash: Ross, Early Bench, 139. Corporation of the Town of Detroit: Act of Incorporation and Journal of the Board of Trustees, 44.
51. Corporation of the Town of Detroit: Act of Incorporation and Journal of the Board of Trustees, 37.
52. Ste. Anne Church Records, BHL, UM.
53. 1802 taxes: Bald, Detroit’s First, 194; the highest homes taxed in 1802 were owned by Richard Donovan and John Dodemead. 1805 taxes: Other high taxpayers included Solomon Sibley and father Gabriel Richard. R. N. Drake, “Sketch of Judge May: The Grandfather of Mrs. Seymour,” From Drake Scrapbook in Possession of R.N. Drake, R.N. Drake, Seattle, WA, from Scrapbook of Drake loaned to C.M.B., James May Papers, Wallet 1, BHC, DPL. The grandson of an original French Detroit settler and slaveholder, Joseph Campau likely inherited slaves. Certainly, he owned at least two Native slaves, Jacques and Thomas, who both died in 1805. Ste. Anne Church Records, BHL, UM.
54. Macomb Ledger, Macomb Estate Papers, BHC, DPL, 19–20.
55. Bald, Detroit’s First, 235. Bald notes that the western boundary of Michigan Territory differed slightly from the previous boundary of Wayne County. Instead of extending to the western edge of Lake Michigan, Michigan Territory’s border was drawn through the middle of the lake.
56. Elijah Brush and Thomas Jones were appointed fire inspectors by the town trustees in 1805; Bald, Detroit’s First, 237. Brush was appointed lieutenant colonel of Legionary Corps in the Militia of the Territory of Michigan; William Hull, to all to whom these presents shall come, William Woodbridge Papers, September 12, 1805, BHC, DPL.
57. E. Brush to Robison & Martin, October 6, 1803, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL.
58. Bald, Detroit’s First, 240.
59. Robert Munro letter, June 14, 1805, as quoted in Farmer, History of Detroit, 490.
60. Robert Munro letter, June 14, 1805, as quoted in Farmer, History of Detroit, 490–91.
61. Bald, Great Fire, 12–14; Bald, Detroit’s First, 239–40; Jean Dilhet, Beginnings of the Catholic Church in the United States, translated and annotated by Patrick W. Browne (Washington, D.C.: The Salve Regina Press, 1922), 114; Robert Munro letter, June 14, 1805, as quoted in Farmer, History of Detroit, 491.
62. Munro to Harrison, June 14, 1805, Logan Esarey, ed., Governors Messages and Letters: Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, Vol. 1, 1800–1811 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Commission, 1922), 136–37; also quoted in Farmer, History of Detroit, 490.
63. Bald, Great Fire, 13–14.
64. Munro to Harrison, June 14, 1805, Logan Esarey, ed., Governors Messages, 136–37; also quoted in Farmer, History of Detroit, 490.
65. As quoted in Bald, Great Fire, 14.
66. Bald, Detroit’s First, 242. While Jefferson attempted to appoint three judges as stipulated in the plan for Michigan Territory, two men turned down the third open post, resulting in only Woodward and Bates being present after the fire. Bald, Detroit’s First, 242, footnote 5.
67. Jefferson to John Woodward, Jefferson Papers, Series 1, Vol. 4, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
68. Notes on My Visit to Mr. Jefferson, 1796, Augustus Brevoot Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
69. Notes on My Visit to Mr. Jefferson, 1796, Augustus Brevoot Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
70. “Essay on Habit,” 1794, Box 1 Correspondence 1782–94, Augustus Brevoot Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL. Woodward’s notes cite at least two cases involving blacks during his Washington years. In one case he played a role in taking depositions from a free black woman named Milly Smith who was married to an enslaved man and attempting to free her children; Augustus Woodward Papers, Box 2: 1795–1805, April 8, 1803, BHC, DPL. The other case involved an indentured “mulatto woman” named
Celeste about whom Woodward had information requested by her employer; Pollock to Woodward, April 23, 1804, Correspondence with Oliver Pollock Folder, 1780–1813, BHC, DPL. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (Philadelphia: Prichard and Hall, 1788).
71. A.B. Woodward to Thomas Jefferson, October 20, 1803, Jefferson Papers, Series 2, vol. 88, Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
72. Bald, Detroit’s First, 242. Woodward oath of fidelity, September 12, 1805, Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
73. Woodward’s was the strongest voice on the Supreme Court by far. Justice Frederick Bates resigned in 1806, leaving his seat vacant until 1808 when he was replaced by Justice James Witherell. Justice John Griffin, the third initial appointee, has been described as a fairly passive supporter of Woodward’s leadership. Woodward served as chief justice from 1805 to 1823. Burton, “Augustus Brevoort Woodward,” 638, 640, 646. Edward J. Littlejohn, “Slaves, Judge Woodward, and the Supreme Court of the Michigan Territory,” Michigan Bar Journal (July 2015): 22–25, 22, 23. The Woodward Code of Laws, created in 1805, was republished in Laws of the Territory of Michigan: Laws Adopted by the Governor and Judges. Vol. 1. Lansing, 1871. 4 vols. The Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources.
74. Littlejohn, “Slaves,” 22–25, 23.
75. Bald, Detroit’s First, 241–42.
76. Farmer, History of Detroit, 490; Girardin, baker, as slaveholder: Ste. Anne Church Records, January 1, 1786.
77. Bald, Great Fire, 15; Bald, Detroit’s First, 242.
78. William Hull to James Madison, August 3, 1805, as quoted in Farmer, History of Detroit, 490.
79. David Braithwaite, “Brigadier General William Hull: His Military and Political Story,” Hull Family Association Journal 15:1 (Autumn 2004): 96–99, 97.
80. Mr. Gentle as quoted in Farmer, History of Detroit, 491; Bald, Detroit’s First, 241.
81. Bald, Detroit’s First, 243.
82. See Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (New York: Picador, 2007).
83. Bald, Great Fire, 12. Elijah Brush, James May, and John Anderson to the President of the United States, 1806, LMS/Alexander D. Fraser Papers, 1800–1816, BHC, DPL.
84. Bald, Great Fire, 16. Kenneth R. Fletcher, “A Brief History of Pierre L’Enfant and Washington D.C.,” Smithsonian.com, April 30, 2008. Accessed May 13, 2016.
85. Topica, August 16 & 17, 1792, Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
86. Notes: Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution, May 24, 1794, Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL; To the President of the United States of America, July 4, 1798, Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
87. Copy of Philip Freneau, “On the American and French Revolutions,” January 1, 1790, Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
88. “Between a Patriot & a British,” July 29, 1796, Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
89. May’s home, located on the corner of Jefferson Ave. and Cass St. May’s Creek, was later closed off and incorporated into the city’s sewer system. Ross, Early Bench, 140–42. Farmer, History of Detroit, 481.
90. Mr. Gentle, Statements, as quoted in Farmer, History of Detroit, 491.
91. William Tucker Probate, reel 1, Wayne County Probates, State Library of Michigan, Lansing, MI. In his decision of the Denison v. Tucker case, Judge Woodward says British buying and selling of slaves is to be determined case by case.
92. Tucker Probate, Wayne County Probates, State Library of Michigan.
93. Denison et al v. Catherine Tucker, Writ of Habeas Corpus ad Subjiciendum, in William Wirt Blume, ed., Transactions of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Michigan, 1805–1814, Vol. II (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1935), 133–36.
94. Denison v. Tucker, Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan Vol. II, 133–36.
95. “The Brush Homestead in 1850,” reproduced in Farmer, History of Detroit, 378.
96. Silas Farmer, History of Detroit, 367, 374.
97. Jacobson, Detroit River, 60.
98. Brush treasurer: Farmer, History of Detroit, 89.
99. Jacobson, Detroit River, 60.
100. While seamstresses did “piece work” sewing, dressmakers possessed a higher level of skill, and in a free labor economy, earned more pay; Angela P. Robbins, “Bridging the Old South and the New: Women in the Economic Transformation of the North Carolina Piedmont, 1865–1920” (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina Greensboro, 2010), p. 21. As quoted in Jacobson, Detroit River, 61.
101. VanderVelde, Redemption Songs, 9. The records on this case do not include opinions or dissents by any other judge. The notes of Detroit archivist and historian Clarence Burton also indicate that Woodward was the sole decider in this case; Legal Notes, Clarence Burton Papers, DPL. Affidavit of Elijah Brush, respecting ill treatment of Matthew Elliott, Supreme Court of Michigan, ed., Blume, Vol. II, 216. Michigan’s Dred Scott case quote: Reginald R. Larrie, Makin’ Free: African Americans in the Northwest Territory (Detroit: Blaine Ethridge Books, 1981), 6; a like phrase also quoted in Charlie Keller, “Detroit’s First Black Militia,” in Denver Brunsman, Joel Stone, and Douglas D. Fisher, eds., Border Crossings: The Detroit River Region in the War of 1812 (Detroit: Detroit Historical Society, 2012), 89. For more on the Dred and Harriet Scott case and an analysis that includes gender and the family, see Lea VanderVelde, Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery’s Frontier (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
102. As quoted in Littlejohn, “Slaves,” 23.
103. Littlejohn, “Slaves, 23; Charles Moore, “Augustus Brevoort Woodward—A Citizen of Two Cities,” in The Committee on Publication and the Recording Secretary, Records of the Columbia Historical Society, vol. 4 (Washington D.C., 1901): 114–27, 126.
104. Littlejohn, “Slaves,” 22, 23; Moore, “Slave Law,” 126; Burton, “Augustus Brevoort Woodward,” MPHC, Vol. 29, 638–39.
105. Quotations and mottos, Woodward Papers April 10, 1789 BHC, DPL.
106. Woodward Papers April 10, 1789 BHC, DPL; Composition of 1793, On the qualities requisite for greatness, May 2 1793, Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
107. Laws of the Territory of Michigan: Laws Adopted by the Governor and Judges, Vol. 1. Lansing, 1871. 4 vols. The Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources, 10.
108. Paul D. Halliday, Habeas Corpus: From England to Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), 1–2, 101, 120, 174. Anthony Gregory, The Power of Habeas Corpus in America: From the King’s Prerogative to the War on Terror (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 78–80. As Lea VanderVelde has detailed, the first freedom suit decided in the Northwest Territory was brought by black Revolutionary War veteran, Peter McNelly. McNelly petitioned for the freedom of himself and his wife, Queen, in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1794; their suit also employed the writ of habeas corpus. Although the judge found in their favor, power plays among prominent white men led to Peter McNelly’s kidnapping and coerced indenture and to Queen’s disappearance. VanderVelde, Redemption Songs, 24–37.
109. Wilbert E. Moore, “Slave Law and the Social Structure,” Journal of Negro History 26:2 (April 1941): 171–202, 188.
110. Denison v. Tucker, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. II, 133–36.
111. Journal, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of of Michigan, Vol. I, 381.
112. Journal, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. I, 381. Woodward decision: Journal, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. I, 387.
113. In the Matter of Elizabeth Denison, James Denison, Scipio Denison, and Peter Denison junior, detained by Catherine Tucker, August–October 14, 1807, Oct. 1, 1807, Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
114. Reading List, Sept 6, 1792, Woodward Papers, BHC, DPL.
115. James Wood to Augustus Woodward, Aug. 18, 1807, Sandwich, Harris Hickman Papers, BHC, DPL. “An ACT to enable persons held in slavery, to sue for their freedom,” June 27, 1807, Laws of the Territory of Louisiana, Missouri Digital Heritage, Missouri State Archives. Petitioners held the burden of proof in demonstrating that they were actually free and being held by force. https://www.so
s.mo.gov/archives/education/aahi/beforedredscott/1807FreedomStatute. https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/education/aahi/beforedredscott/history_freedomsuits. Accessed March 30, 2017.
116. Woodward decision: Journal, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. I, 386. As quoted in Littlejohn, “Slaves,” 25.
117. Syllabi of Decisions and Opinions, In the Matter of Elizabeth Denison, Et Al, September 26, 1807, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. I, 319.
118. McRae, “Crossing,” 36.
119. Pattinson Petition for return of slave Jenney, Woodward Papers, F: 1805–1807, BHC, DPL; Case 76, Pattinson’s Affidavit, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. II, 156. Littlejohn, “Slaves,” 24; Norman McRae, “Crossing the River to Find Freedom,” Michigan History 67:2 (March/April 1983): 35–39, 36. In the Case of Toby, a Panis Man, in Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. II, 404, 405.
120. Calendar of Cases, Case 76 In the Matter of Richard Pattinson, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. I, 99–100; Syllabi of Decisions and Opinions, No. 76 In the Matter of Richard Pattinson, October 23, 1807, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. I, 321–22. Journal, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. I, 414.
121. Case 76, Pattinson’s Affidavit, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. II, 156; Case 76 In the Matter of Richard Pattinson, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. I, 99. Pattinson Petition for return of slave Jenney, Oct. 19, 1807 Woodward Papers, June 14, 1811 F: 1805–1807 BHC, DPL.
122. James Heward vs. Charles Curry, Affidavit In the Case of Matthew Elliott Esq., October 21, 1807, Selected Papers SC of Michigan, 155–56; James Heward Papers, File 29 (new No. 49), BHC, DPL. “Matthew Elliott Essex County,” (Toronto: York University, Harriet Tubman Institute, 2012), 7.
123. Calendar of Cases, Case 60 In the Matter of Elizabeth Denison, James Denison, Scipio Denison and Peter Denison, Jr., 1807, Habeas corpus, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan Vol. II, 86–87. Brush representing Elliott: Selected Papers, Case 90, Affidavit of Elijah Brush, 1807, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan, Vol. II, 215–16.