In class last week, there was a mock trial of State v. Mann, which we heard the context of the case and heard both sides, which included the side of the State of North Carolina and the side Mann. The context of this case is that a slave named Lydia who was owned by Elizabeth Jones and she had hired Lydia for a year to someone else who was John Mann in 1892. Because of Lydia not liking this change and her acting out, Mann decided he wanted to punish her, but she managed to escape and ran away so Mann shot her. The state of North Carolina had found him guilty so he was fined. He called this fine “unjust” and he didn’t want to pay it.
Some said that there was nothing wrong with this because Mann was in charge of Lydia since she was his slave for the year, but some argued that she wasn’t his property since it was just for a year and he did not have ownership. I was shocked to hear that anyone would think that Mann shooting Lydia would be okay, even if she was working for him. It's not like she had the opportunity to speak up for something to change. Because of Mann not owning Lydia, he should not have treated her this poorly.
In this case, there was the issue of slavery being still legal in North Carolina, so there was the belief that the people that were slave owners were considered superior. They could treat a slave wrong and not have to deal with the consequences. The idea of this is so wrong. No one should be able to have the ability to own someone and someone who does should not be considered to be better. If anything, they should be considered bad people for treating humans so harsh.
Hearing the opinions of those that were on Mann’s side was hard to hear. Everything they said justifying slavery and the situation were beliefs that seemed to be so normalized in the south during this time and it is so crazy to think that people could say things like this and get away with it. Everyone on that side made it sound like Mann had done nothing wrong since Lydia was a slave. Those that were for slavery all talked about how much industries would suffer without slavery, but that doesn’t make slave owners actions okay. If someone wants their industry to be successful, they should share that success with their workers.
Mann was wrong treating Lydia this bad and was wrong for thinking that the punishment wasn’t fair. He deserved more than the fine. Lydia was still considered Elizabeth’s property and no matter what, even if she was Mann’s property, she should never have been treated that bad no matter what she did.
Sources:
https://www.ncpedia.org/state-v-john-mann
https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/state-v-mann/
https://law.jrank.org/pages/2446/State-v-Mann-1829.html
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