Case Name: John a negro man, against Benoni Dawson
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 1799-05
Citations: 2 Yeates 449
Docket Number: 
Parties: John a negro man, against Benoni Dawson.
Judges: 
Reporter: Reports of cases adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (Yeates)
Volume: 2
Pages: 449–449

Head Matter:
John a negro man, against Benoni Dawson.
One who is not an inhabitant of Westmoreland county before 28(1 September li80,brings a slave from Maryland into that county in October 1'782, and registers him in December following, the negro is entitled to his freedom.
Homine replegiando. Plea property.
It was admitted on trial, by both parties, that the plaintiff was born a slave in Maryland, and was brought from thence in the month of October 1782, into Westmoreland county, by the defendant his then master, who before the 23d September 1780, was not an inhabitant of Westmoreland or Washington counties ; and that the plaintiff was registered in the office of the clerk of the peace of Westmoreland county, as a slave on the 30th Debomber 1782.
Messrs. Woods and Collins, pro quer.
Messrs. Young and Sample, pro def.

Opinion:
By the court.
The facts admitted will not bear an argument. The defendant was not an inhabitant of Westmoreland county before the 23d September 1780, and therefore does not come within the words or meaning of the act of 13th April 1782. Neither he nor the negro wore within the state at that timo. In a much stronger case on a habeas corpus in Washington county against Aberilla Blackmore, the court liberated two negro women.
Verdict joro quer..