Case ID: f-cas_23/html/0952-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "THE COURT", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Case No. 13,900.
    THOMAS v. JAMESSON.
    [1 Cranch, C. C. 91.] 
    
    Circuit Court, District of Columbia.
    April Term, 1802.
    Slavery — Slave as Witxess.
    A slave cannot be a witness if a free white man be a party.
    Assault and battery. The plaintiff was a man of color. The defendant, a free white man, offered his slave as a witness under the act of assembly (Rev. Code, 289, § 3; Old Acts Assem. p. 284).
   THE COURT

refused to permit the slave to be sworn. See Act Jan. 21,1801, § 4 [Laws Va. 1800-01, p. 38].