A "Free" State

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-14-2025

Abstract

In 1856, fourteen people held as slaves—two adult women, their eleven children, and one grandchild—appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom. They were the subjects of a writ of habeas corpus, the most powerful legal tool available to abolitionists. Theirs was the largest freedom suit California history. The controversy surrounding the case affected the judge and the small free Black population of Los Angeles. Latter-day Saints, proslavery southern migrants to southern California, elite Californios, and even the governor were also drawn into the dramatic confrontation between slavery and freedom in Los Angeles. The 1850 California constitution outlawed slavery. Why was a seemingly straightforward freedom suit so hotly debated? Slavery was protected in California, thanks especially to its Supreme Court. Racialist proslavery and abolitionism converged in California in the mid-1850s, in ways that can be seen by exploring new sources and making connections between more familiar records that previously had not been placed in conversation. This article illuminates the importance of gender, faith, migration, and the changing place of localism in American life and law before the Civil War. This history highlights proslavery law and attitudes in 1850s California, and the success of the slave colony, San Bernardino. The freedom of all fourteen people claimed as slaves was an unexpected result, given the legal and political dominance of proslavery forces in the region. The defendant apparently had no stomach for a court battle, however, and he skipped town.

Keywords

slavery, race, California, law, constitution, Judge, Latter-day Saint, Mormon, freedom, Black, Witness

Publication Title

Journal of the Early Republic

Publication Citation

45 J. Early Republic 213 (2025)

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1353/jer.2025.a963425

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