DICK (no last name)

In 1808, Soloman and Elisha Ellis issued a bill f sale of personal property.  The property conveyed were slaves, including a man named Dick, age about 45 years old.

In 1812 a slave named Dick, age about 51 years old, asked to join Bethel Primitive Baptist Church.  He requested baptism by my great-great-great-great uncle, Elder Wilson Thompson, a Primitive Baptist minister   Judge Robert Green, Esquire, the slaveowner, threatened a beating for Dick, and court proceedings against  Uncle Wilson.  In response to Elder Thompson’s inquiry, Dick insisted that he had two masters, God and Judge Green, and, if put to the test, he must obey his heavenly master, rather than the slave-owner. Uncle Wilson baptized Dick in defiance of the slave-master’s threats.  Thereafter, Dick was accepted  as an equal and  brother by the members of Bethel Church, including Uncle Wilson, my great-great-great-great-great Uncle Elder Benjamin Thompson,  my great-great-great-great-grandfather,  Closs Thompson,  and by my great-great-great grandfather Jeremiah Thompson.  Dick remained a Primitive Baptist member of Bethel Church until his death at the age of 103, in 1864, one year before the Civil War ended and freedom came.  Dick’s story, as chronicled in original documents found in the Cape Girardeau County Archives Office in Jackson, Missouri, give a brief glimpse into Dick’s life.

In  1834 Judge Green died.  His will specified that Dick was to be permitted to select the heir who would become his new master.  Judge Green’s widow insisted that Dick remain as her slave for the remainder of her life which he did.

In 1834 Dick was hired from the estate of Robert Green by the widow for $2.00, apparently for one year.

In 1834 Dick was included in the estate inventory of personal property.  He was described as “Negro man named Dick about 67 years old.”

In 1834 Dick was appraised an an asset of the estate, valued at $50.00., and described as sixty-five years old.

In 1835 Dick was hired from the estate of Robert Green to the widow for $1.00, apparently for one year.

In 1836 the estate agreed to give Dick to Robert Green’s widow.

In 1836 Dick, an apparently unrelated young woman named Lucy, along with Lucy’s two children, were hired by Robert Green’s son, David Green, for twelve months for $19.00.

In 1840 Robert Green’s widow died.  The heirs determined that “the old man Dick we wish to remain where he pleases clear of any charge in any way or form.”

In 1841 Dick and an apparently unrelated woman named Sarah were sold to David Green for $5.16 and 250.00, respectively.

In 1842 David Green paid $21.50 to one heir as that heir’s share of the proceeds of the sale of slaves John, Sarah and Dick.  He paid another heir $151.00 as that heir’s share ofthe proceeds of the sale of the same slaves.

In 1849 David Green stated in his will:  “It is my will and desire that all of my children shall care to render my old servant Dick as comfortable and convenient during is life and especially as I impose on my son Lafayette to see that he is comfortably clad, fed, and nursed during sickness and decently buried when he may die.”  David Green died in 1850.

In 1858 Dick was appraised as worth $000.00.

The Bethel Primitive Baptist Church minute book contains the following entries relevant to this story:  

1864 

“Brother Dick Green a black man aged 103 departed this life in 1864.”

“The reason that there is no record kept is because of the rebellion in the United States from 1861 to 1865 and from January the first up to October.”

[There are no minute entries in the Bethel Primitive Baptist Church minute book for the period Auigust 1862 to October 1865 – Query, was the church not

permitted to convene during the Civil War?]

The foregoing information was gather in part in reliance on “A Resource Guide to the Slaves, Slaveowners and Free Blacks of Cape Girardeau County: 1797-1865,”

compiled by Margaret M.. Mates, dated 1998.

POLLY STRONG'S STORY

During our visit to Corydon, Indiana’s first capital, I learned about a young 20 year old enslaved girl named Polly Strong.  A Mr. Hyacinthe Lasselle, had purchased Polly’s mother from the Indians.  He claimed Polly as his slave by virtue of her birth to her enslaved mother, and in reliance on the Ordinance of 1787 in which Virginia had ceded away its claim to western lands.  

     In 1820 Polly sued for freedom in the Knox County Circuit Court, Vincennes, Indiana (Knox County adjoins Sullivan County, my home county).  The circuit court denied her claim and left her enslaved to Hyacinthe Lasselle.  Polly, with the help of some brave attorney, appealed to the Indiana Supreme Court.  In a unanimous three judge decision the Court turned aside all arguments of pre-existing rights and found that the Indiana citizenry, in its 1816 constitutional convention assembled, had declared that slavery is forever barred in Indiana.  The Court found that no argument Mr. Lasselle had made could overcome that absolute expression of the will of the people of Indiana.  That expressed will was that no person could ever hold another in bondage in Indiana.  The Court set Polly free.  The case citation is State v. Lasselle, 1 Indiana (Blackford) 60, (1820).

     What a precedent by our state for the much later contrary U.S. Supreme Court Dred Scott decision.  That case citation is DredScott v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393 (1856).  Had that Court followed Indiana, the turmoil that ensued as the North rejected the Dred Scott decision, as shown in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debates, might never have happened.  The poignancy of that decision, in conjunction with Dick’s story, overwhelms the mind, and the emotions.