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State Vs Mann

One of the groups today in class presented a Supreme Court case called State vs Mann. The defendant John Mann shot his runaway slave, Lydia, in the back. She did end up surviving the shooting. Lydia was not owned by John Mann, she was a rented slave. North Carolina charged Mann with assault and charged 10 dollars. John believed he did not have to pay the 10 dollars, because he can do whatever he wants to his property on his owned land. The argument, also talked about how a loaned slave is still a slave with no rights and their "master" can control them however they want. The judge was then charged, because they believed that the charge was unwarrantable to the slave. The jury ended up convicting the defendant and Mann appealed the conviction. 

In my opinion, the charge and assault seemed wrong. When law comes into the picture though, Mann had the right to control a slave. This is a controversial case, because Lydia was a runaway slave and owners are allowed to punish runaways slaves however they like. The only argument though, is Lydia was technically not John Mann's property. At the time this did make sense to the government and people, but in present time this is wrong and not even fair. It is unfortunate that even injuring a human being was an unjust argument all because people of color were considered property as slaves.




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