Case Name: Negro Mary against The Vestry of William and Mary's Parish, in Charles County
Court: General Court of Maryland
Jurisdiction: Maryland
Decision Date: 1796-10
Citations: 3 Md. 501
Docket Number: 
Parties: Negro Mary against The Vestry of William and Mary’s Parish, in Charles County.
Judges: 
Reporter: Maryland reports, being a series of the most important law cases argued and determined in the Provincial Court and Court of Appeals of the then province of Maryland, from the year 1700 [i.e. 1658] down to the [end of 1799]
Volume: 3
Pages: 501–502

Head Matter:
GENERAL COURT,
OCTOBER TERM, 1796.
Negro Mary against The Vestry of William and Mary’s Parish, in Charles County.
THIS was a petition for freedom. It was admitted that the petitioner was descended from Negro Mary, imported many years ago into this country from Madagascar; and the question was, whether she was entitled to her freedom ?
Kilty, for the petitioner.
The deposition filed in the cause states, that the petitioner was imported into this state before the act of 1715.
Wherever a person has been taken from a country where the slave trade was not practised and carried on, and brought here and sold, such a person is not a slave according to the laws of this state. Cites 6 vol. World Displayed, 273. 290. The act of 1715 related only to slaves brought in according to the regular course of the slave trade. Madagascar was not a place from whence "slaves were usually brought,
Key, for the defendant.
Slavery is derived either from viilenage in England, or it was thought necessary to introduce it at the time of colonization, for political reasons, to cultivate the land. Guthrie’s Geography, 679. ■ In Madagascar the petty princes make war on each other for slaves and plunder. Abbé Raynal, vol. 2. 227. Slavery in Madagascar, Ives’s Voyage, 5. They carry on the slave trade with Europeans.

Opinion:
The Court.
Madagascar being a country where the slave trade is practised, and this being a country where slavery is tolerated, it is incumbent on the petitioner to show her ancestor was free in her own country to entitle her to freedom.
The petition was dismissed.