Case Name: William, (a slave,) plaintiff in error, vs. The State of Georgia, defendant in error
Court: Supreme Court of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1864-03
Citations: 33 Ga. Supp. 85
Docket Number: 
Parties: William, (a slave,) plaintiff in error, vs. The State of Georgia, defendant in error.
Judges: 
Reporter: Georgia Reports
Volume: 33 Suppl.
Pages: 85–93

Head Matter:
William, (a slave,) plaintiff in error, vs. The State of Georgia, defendant in error.
On the trial of slaves or free persons of color in this State, the husband or wife is not admissible as a witness for or against each other.
Indictment for murder, in Thomas Superior Court, tried before Judge A. H. IIansell, at December Term, 1863, and motion for new trial.
William, a slave, belonging to S. A. Smith, was indicted for murder in killing another slave, by the name of George, belonging to the said-S. A. Smith, in said county of Thomas, and was put upon his trial therefor at December term, 1863. On the trial, the following evidence was adduced before the Court and the jury impaneled to try said ease. The testimony of Ann, a slave, was objected to on the ground that said Ann, being the wife of the prisoner, was not a competent witness, and in support of the objection, counsel for the prisoner directed the attention of the presiding Judge to the testimony hereinafter given, showing that Ann was prisoner’s wife. The Court overruled the objection and allowed Ann to testify.
The jury found the defendant guilty of willful murder, but recommended him to the mercy of the Court.
Counsel for prisoner then made a motion for a new trial on the grounds:
1st. Because the verdict of the jury is against the weight of evidence and without evidence.
2d. Because the verdict is contrary to law.
3d. Because the Court erred in admitting Ann, the prisoner’s wife, to testify against him.
4th. Because the Court did not charge the law of manslaughter.
5th. Because the jury did not find a unanimous verdict, but found the verdict by the vote of a majority.
6th. Because the verdict was the result of an arrangement between the jurors, by which they supposed the prisoner could be found guilty of murder and punished for manslaughter.
7th. Because the Court erred in charging that there was no evidence of adultery.
The presiding Judge refused the new trial, and his ruling is complained of as error.
J. L. Seward; Alexander & Love, for plaintiff in error.
S. B. Spencer, Solicitor General, contra.
EVIDENCE EOR THE STATE.
Paul, (a slave, the property of S. A. Smith) sworn: George came home on Friday night; does not know what time he left that night; he was not there on Saturday morning;'Bill was then at home; he was there all the morning and did not leave there until dinner time, the time he saw him going down the lane with a hoe; it was almost dinner time when witness came home; Bill was in the lane and told witness to go and help the man put the carriage up; after witness put the carriage up he went to look at some wood there was left in the woods George had told him to haul, and when he came back with a stick of wood and saw Bill, and Bill looked up that way and then looked towards the house; and after awhile he stooped down aud picked up a hoe with his left hand and threw it over into the lane, still looking towards the house; he then opened the gate and picked up the hoe, and took his axe on his shoulder and went down the lane; after he went down the lane he saw the boys coming and he stooped down in a corner, like he was doing his business, and after the boys passed him he put on his coat again and picked up the hoe and went on to the cross-fence, and after he got to the cross-fence he jumped over and kept right on down side of the cross-fence; the hoe was a weeding hoe; he went on side the fence till the plum orchard got between witness and him, and then witness could not see him any more; witness went and told master Reddin; witness went off through the plum orchard and just as he got through the orchard and into the field, saw Bill coming a direct course from where witness found the body; Bill came in about fifty yards of witness; he had his axe; witness turned off as Bill looked at him so that witness turned off and went down cross the road and took the side of the fence and then went to the cross-fence and then took the fence up to where he found the fresh dirt; after witness saw that, he went back round to the house and reported; he went there to hunt because he saw Bill going down that string of fence; after witness went back and t81d of it, he did not go back to where he found the fresh dirt until the evening, and some white gentlemen were there and had dug up the body and told him to wash the face; they took George up then; it was his body; witness did not find the hoe shown him; he has seen it (the hoe in Court) before; it is Bill’s hoe; he kept it then about his house.
Cross-examined: Bill was the foreman at home; had no conversation with George about the time he was going off about surveying the ground; never told Bill that George had made threats; Bill was telling him about it that night; had heard Curt tell of them before; on Friday night went to Bill’s house, and Bill asked him if Curt had told him, and he said no, (as he did not wish to get into a difficulty;) Bill asked him if he heard what George had to say about him, and he said no; Bill said that Curt had told him that George had not much to say; Curt did not tell witness about it; Bill told witness to come to his house and he asked him about that chat George told Curt; Bill said George asked Curt what Bill had to say about him and Curt told George he had not much to say; and George said he knew better; he knew Bill was glad when he was gone; but need not to be so, as he was as good as he (Bill) was, and says he only came up this time to survey out some land, and next time he came he would tend it; Bill said then to witness, Paul, what do you think George was doing all that for, and witness said he did not know, and Bill said, I know, “Mr. 'Wilder is going off and George is doing all this on account of my wife;” and asked, “don’t that seem mighty hard that a man should be carried off from his family;” that George has said that “he or William one would have to go off when he came back,” and afterwards said, “no, he would not go, but William would have to go,” and said, George said, “ he was down there where there was some just as smart negroes as ever made tracks on the ground;” William then said, ^don’t that look mighty hard, George is down yonder and I think he is working some prank to get me away from my wife;” witness told him “George was a fool, if he thought that to put it out, so he (Bill) could get a hold of it;” witness stepped off and came back and said, “William, if I should be the longest liver, I do not expect to die until you or George one is the cause of the death of tne other;” Bill said, “he reckoned so,” and witness went off; this talk was on the night George was killed; George came home that night, but the talk was before he got home; he came home unexpectedly; nobody knew he was coming that night; Mr. Wilder owned George’s wife, and there was talk of his moving away; he has moved and is gone now; witness belongs to S. Alexander Smith, and has lived there a long time; Bill’s wife is named Ann; she lives there too; knows there was a fuss on the place between George and Bill about Bill’s wife; but witness did not see anything with his eyes about his wife and George wrong, and cannot state any facts to show anything wrong; they were friendly, but Bill was always telling him about it; they had been having a fuss for the last four or five years; did not understand the words about surveying the land to mean anything about killing Bill, but to work some plan to get him off the place; just imagined they would kill one another because he knew the bad feeling, and he thought after awhile the devil might get in him and he might kill George, and that was what he thought about it; the idea he had about the surveying, etc., was to get Bill off the place and cultivate his wife; Bill was foreman on the place; it is common to have them; likes Bill as well any negro his master had, and they got along like brothers; so did George till they had a dispute about his wife and then they fell out; was at home the night George came home; he came on the train about eight o’clock; he was at the house tolerably late; does not know of George or Ann being missing that time; witness’ house is the first house outside; Ann stayed next to the yard; saw Aun pass into the yard towards the house that night, but did not see her go back.
For State resumed: Bill and Ann was never married by the book, only went to mistress and master; Ann was cook for the house.
Ann, (a slave,) sworn : Was at her house sitting at the door on the door steps the night George was killed; that is at Mr. Alexander Smith’s (her master) in this county; saw George that ,night; he was in the kitchen putting on his cap the last she saw of him and he went on out of the door; he was going home to Mr. Wilder’s to his wife’s house; that was betwixt nine and ten o’clock, she reckons — don’t know certainly; it was on Friday night; she went on to her house; saw defendant there; she went in and he was lying down on the bed; she asked him if he had gone to bed already, and he said no; she said, I see you’ve got your shoes on yet; he asked her if George was gone; she told him yes, she believed so; he got up and came as far as the door and told her if Curt came there and asked for him she need not let on no better but that he was lying down there in the house; he went on out of the door and picked up his coat and his axe and went on as if he was going to the lot; reckon it was almost a quarter of an hour or so after he left she heard a noise like a screaming, like somebody was getting a whipping over towards Mr. Douglass’ house; heard three or four screams; she walked over the yard and looked about if she could see William, and then back to the house, and in this time William was back in the house again; but she did not see when he came; this was not very long after the noise; does not think it was a quarter of an hour; he was sitting in the door and had his axe by him, and she went in about ten steps of him and asked him where he had been, and he said nowhere, hardly; and she asked him if he heard the noise, and he said no, and asked her if she heard any noise and what it was; and she told him it was somebody halooing over towards Mr. Douglass’; he said he did not hear it; he did nothing with the axe but had it sitting by the side of him; did not move it; defendant appeared to be cool and calm; when she spoke to him, he spoke somehow as if he was excited. (Shown a hoe.) Does not know it herself; he keeps his hoes and things over in his garden behind his house.
Cross-examined: Is the wife of Bill; is so by consent of her master and mistress; was so at the time George was killed and for thirteen or fifteen years before, and had a boy about sixteen years old; had two children; the lot is the other way from her house that Mr. Douglass’ is; Rill started towards the lot.
State resumed: George generally went out of the yard by the front gate, and went out that way.
Paul recalled by the State: George had a little foot path off, a nigh cut to go home from their house to Mr. Wilder’s; saw the place where the blood was on Sunday morning; this was right close to that path — a pine tree near to it — very close — say as near as Mr. Seward is — about ten feet.
Cross-examined: Does not know what made the blood there; this was a long way from where George was buried and fences between: don’t know how long it would take a man to carry one that far and bury him; George would weigh about one hundred and forty pounds; guess it would take him about an hour to kill a hog and carry him that distance and bury him; thinks it was about two hundred yards to the grave from the house, and it would take ten minutes to walk it; the hole was a little over or about a foot deep; it would not take Bill longer to dig the hole than it would have for the hog.
Dr. D. S. Brandon, (sworn:) Was one of the jury of inquest on the body of George, the property of Mr. S. Alexander Smith; his death was evidently from a violent blow; the skull was broken — back and upper part; it was on Saturday, the day .after he was supposed to have been killed; could not say defi,-nitely from the wound when he was killed; but had not been probably more than twelve or sixteen hours before; it was in this county, in Mr. Smith’s field, near town; the wound might have been done with any heavy instrument of wood or iron; the shape of the wound was irregular; there was evidence of a blow just under the ear and the lower part of the ear cut, not very smoothly, and apparently made with an edged instrument; was not present when the grubbing hoe was found, but saw it afterwards with some stains on it supposed to be blood; the body had been removed from the grave when he saw it.
Cross-examined: Thinks it likely a person after receiving that wound might scream some half dozen times; the skull was not deeply depressed; this is only opinion; the back part of the head is the centre of the nervous system, and a blow there would have a more stunning effect than elsewhere; the depression was not immediately over the most vital point.
Robert R. Evans, (sworn.) — Was one of the jury of inquest on the body of George; went to the place where the boy was buried in the fence corner in Mr. Smith’s field; heard others speak of tracing the track from the place where the boy was said to be murdered, and went out that way to examine, found a track coming from that direction — noticed but one track, it made considerable impression, and seemed to have considerable weight on it; made more impression than witness’ own track; traced it hack, thinks about half way through the field towards where the killing was said to have taken place; measured the track with a pocket rule he had, width and length; also measured the shoe of defendant, which he had on when they went to the jail. (The jury of inquest went to the jail.) The shoe defendant had on then, and the track corresponded; was accurate in his measurement, for the purpose of tracing out the crime. The grubbing hoe was brought to the house and shown to the jury of inquest. That in Court is the same hoe, or one just like it. This was on the 19th of September last, at Mr. Aleck Smith’s house, in this county.
Oross-examinecl: The ground was rather light and sandy, with some grass, and corn had been planted; it was not loose, but had had rains on it. Witness has been a merchant a long time; thinks the rule measured the track to be about eleven inches; a number nine shoe would probable fit it; eights and nines are about the most common shoe used by men in this country.
Direct resumed: Witness weighs about two hundred.
Dr. P. S. Bower, (sworn.) — (Grubbinghoe shown him) thinks he has seen it before; when he first saw it, it had the appearance of blood on it, more distinct then than now; witness found the hoe in a bunch of briars in Mr. Smith’s field, the day of the inquest; did not see the burial spot of George; had it pointed out, but did not go there; found the hoe in the corner of the fence on the road running along the road from Mr. Smith’s to the Monticello road; the place where the hoe was found was nearer the house than the grave was; it was not in a line between the two, but in a line between the alleged place of the murder and .the burial spot; at a right angle from the house found a carpet-sack in a fence corner, a few corners from where he found the hoe; it was buried in some broom-sedge; had been told that George had a carpet-sack when he left home and that it was missing.
Cross-examined: Diagram shown him and said to be correct, or nearly so.
John Thick, (sworn.) — Was not right with Mr. Evans when he measured the track, was some distance off, but saw him do it; witness measured it also with a stick or reed; noticed the peculiarity of the track that crossed the field ; straight across it seemed to be depressed; examined the track above the grave towards the plum orchard, measured the two tracks with a stick; they corresponded; the last track he did not see at the grave exactly, but some one pointed out the way they said the boy went, and found the track at the end of the corn row; went off to look for it as there were several around the grave; this track led one towards the house and one towards the grave; measured the tracks with the reed or stick he had measured the first with, and found they fitted; concluded they were the same track, and threw the stick or reed down; the first track he measured was the same that Mr. Evans measured with the rule; don’t know from where he got the information, but from some of the family, this boy had been seen going across that Avay.
Cross-examined: Thinks it about a quarter and a half quarter from Mr. Smith’s to Mr. Douglass’ by way of the road; would not say it was not half a mile; thinks it Avas about tAvelve or one o’clock in the day; the field in AA'hich the tracks were, was connected Avith Mr. Smith’s house; he has a good many negroes about there; it AAras very dry about that time, and for some time before; knows the Montieello road ; there is another field on the right of that road, a good ways further, but has not knoAvn who it belongs to ; did not see any path leading through the field in the field he was in, toAA’ards that field; saAV many other tracks about the graArn; butsaAA' no others when he examined the track.

Opinion:
By the Court
Lyon, J.,
delivering the opinion.
On the trial of slaves or free persons of color in this State, the husband or wife is not admissible as a witness for or against each other.
" The contubernal relation among slaves shall be recognized in public sales whenever possible, and in criminal trials where it becomes important to the advancement of justice:" Section 1666, Code.
"The rules of evidence in the trial of slaves or free persons of color, shall be the same as in the trial of white persons; other slaves or free persons of color shall be competent witnesses, if otherwise unobjectionable:" Code, sec. 4698. By the 1666th section the marriage relation or what passes with them as that is recognized. By section 4698, the same rules of evidence must obtain in their trial, as in the trial of whites, and it is a well settled rule in the trial of white persons, that neither the husband or the wife is a competent witness for or against the other: 1 Gr. Ev., sec. 334. It follows that it was error in the Court below to allow Ann, a slave, and the wife of the prisoner, to testify as a witness against him, and a new trial must be had on that ground, the third in the motion for a new trial.
Let the judgment be reversed, on the ground that the Court below erred in admitting the testimony of Ann, a slave, the wife of prisoner.