Case Name: Negro Sylvia v. George Coryell
Court: United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1801-07
Citations: 1 Cranch 32
Docket Number: 
Parties: Negro Sylvia v. George Coryell.
Judges: Judgment for the defendant, by Marshall and Cranch, Judges. Kilty, C. J., doubted. (See Act of Assembly of Virginia, 17th December, 1792, ed. 1832, p. 186.)
Reporter: Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (District of Columbia - reported by Mackey)
Volume: 1
Pages: 32–32

Head Matter:
Negro Sylvia v. George Coryell.
If the owner of a slave in Virginia send his slave out of the state for three years, and bring the slave back, it is not such a bringing into the Commonwealth as entitles the slave to freedom, under the second section of the act of 17th December, 1792.
Assault and Battery, to try the right of the plaintiff to her freedom.

Opinion:
Verdict for the plaintiff, subject to the opinion of the Court on the following case: — The plaintiff ivas born a slave in Virginia, in 1779, and became the property of the defendant, a citizen of Virginia. In June, 1789, the defendant sent her to New Jersey, where she remained three years in the service of the defendant's mother, but continued all that time the property of the defendant. At the end of the three years, the plaintiff returned to Virginia, to the service of the defendant, and has so remained until the time of bringing her action.
Judgment for the defendant, by Marshall and Cranch, Judges. Kilty, C. J., doubted. (See Act of Assembly of Virginia, 17th December, 1792, ed. 1832, p. 186.)