Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Patent Law Blogs -> IPBiz

Patent Law

: IPBiz

Sun-Times on Lincoln on his 200th

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

On 12 Feb. 09, the Chicago Sun-Times had a story including the text:

A new book, Fighting Slavery in Chicago by Tom Campbell, recounts how Lincoln, in a couple of cases, represented slave owners as a young lawyer.

In one 1847 case, a man named Robert Matson brought a group of slaves, including Jane Bryant and her children, to Illinois from Kentucky to help plant crops. But when Matson planned to take them back south, the woman refused. Lincoln argued that the law of free state Illinois did not protect slaves "in transit," but the judge noted that the woman and her children had been in Illinois for two years and rejected Lincoln's case. The family went free.

Lincoln then represented Matson in an unsuccessful case against people who had helped Bryant.

Rob Stroud, writing for a smaller newspaper about an upcoming program on the incident, suggested more complexity to the matter:

Jane Bryant and her four children were among the slaves that Robert Matson of Kentucky brought to work his farm east of Newman. Her husband, Anthony Bryant, a freedman and an African-American Methodist lay minister, also lived and worked on the farm.

Robert Matson?s future wife, Mary Corbin, will be portrayed in the program. Henry said Corbin?s threat to send the Bryant children to the South for sale prompted the family to seek help to escape from Matson in 1847.

Gideon Ashmore and Dr. Hiram Rutherford, who also will be portrayed, came forward to shelter the family in Oakland and fund their legal defense. Lincoln agreed to be the lawyer for Matson, the only slave owner he ever represented during his legal career.

?This program will explore Lincoln?s possible motives and shed light on the complexity of the man,? said Traci Montgomery, one of the program planning committee members.

The Bryants won their freedom in court and ultimately emigrated to Liberia. Henry said Lucy Dupree, matriarch of the Brushy Fork free black community near today?s Oakland, will be portrayed and explain why Illinois ?black laws? at the time put free African-Americans at risk.

The legal case was captioned Ashmore v. Matson.

Note that in 1860, New Jersey still had slaves. In 1864, New Jersey gave its electoral votes to McClellan (not Lincoln), but Princeton (then College of New Jersey) gave Lincoln an honorary degree after the election.

Full post as published by IPBiz on February 12, 2009 (boomark / email).