Connecticut
New London County, CT, October 28, 1797
Connecticut African American Released from Jail after Taking Poor Prisoner?s Oath
ADS

[AFRICAN AMERICAN.] Asa Spalding, Autograph Document Signed, Citation for Habeas Corpus, October 28, 1797, New London County, Connecticut. 2 pp., 8" x 6.5". General toning; very good.

This legal document poignantly tells a part of the plight of poor African-American debtor Thomas King in Connecticut near the end of the eighteenth century. Sued by his creditors Isaac Tracy and Benjamin Ames and unable to pay them, King was imprisoned for debt. When someone discussed King?s plight with Justice of the Peace Asa Spalding, he summoned Tracy and Ames to appear to show cause why King should not have the benefit of the ?poor prisoner?s oath.? At the hearing on November 2, 1797, Justice of the Peace Benjamin Huntington administered the oath to King and released him from jail.

Complete Transcript
To Isaac Tracy of Newlondon & Benjamin Ames of Norwich in the County of Newlondon Greeting
Whereas Thomas King a Negro man is now confined in the Common Gaol in Norwich at your Several Suits on Attachments and it is said said Thomas is poor and has not property or Estate wherewith to support himself in Gaol these are therefore to Notify each of you to appear at said Gaol in Norwich on Thursday next at 2 oclock afternoon before some proper Authority to shew reasons if any you have why the oath proceeded by Law for poor persons should not be administered to the said Thomas King & you stand charged with his support or said King released. To any Indifferent person to serve & Return Dated at Norwich the 28th Day of October 1797
Asa Spalding Justice of Peace

[Return:]
This may certifiy that I the Subscriber this Day Left a True Coppy of the within Citation at the usual & Last abode of the Within Named Isaac Tracy of New London & at the usual abode of the Within Named Benjamin Ames of Norwich.
Test Jona M. Young
Norwich New London County
Oct 28th 1797

[Endorsement:]
New London County Ss
Norwich 2nd Novemr 1797
I administered the poor prisoners Oath to the within named Thoms King a Negro man. The Creditors being legally notified Jonathan Lawrence appeared as Attorney to Benj. Ames and declared he had no Reasons to offer why said Oath should not be administered. Said Isaac Tracy being notified was not present.
Benj. Huntington Junr / Justice of Peace

Historical Background
In 1763, the Connecticut General Court enacted ?An Act for Relief of Insolvent Debtors who are willing to make Discovery of and deliver upon Oath their Estates for their Creditors? Benefit, and to release such Debtors from Imprisonment.? Under the provisions of the act, a person imprisoned for debt could take an oath like the following before a court, judge, or justice of the peace: ?You A.B. do solemnly swear by the Everliving God, that the petition by you presented doth contain a just and true account of all the monies owing by you, of the persons to whom, and of all your estate real or personal both in law and equity, either in possession, reversion or remainder, to the best of your knowledge and remembrance, except the necessary wearing apparel and bedding of yourself, you wife and children, and that you have not at any time before or since your imprisonment, directly or indirectly, sold, conveyed, made over or otherwise disposed of, either in trust for yourself or otherwise than is mentioned in the same account, any part of your lands, estate, goods, stock, money, debts, or other real and personal estate, whereby to have or receive any benefit or profit to yourself or your family, or with any view or design to deceive, injure or defraud any of your creditors: So help you God.? If the court or judges were satisfied with the truth of the oath, they could call the prisoner?s creditors to appear in court and show cause why the prisoner should not be discharged and, if they could not, the court or judge could discharge the prisoner from jail.

As slavery waned in Connecticut under the provisions of a 1784 gradual emancipation act, the number of free blacks in the state grew. In 1790, 2,764 enslaved persons remained in Connecticut. The number declined to 951 in 1800, 97 in 1820, 25 in 1830, and 17 in 1840. In 1844, then Governor Roger Sherman Baldwin proposed legislation to end slavery, but the General Assembly did not pass it until it was reintroduced in 1848. That act freed the six remaining slaves in the state.

In 1800, there were approximately 5,330 free blacks in Connecticut. However, many were little better off as free people than they had been in slavery. They could testify in court and own property, but their socioeconomic status remained poor. Although theoretically, free blacks who owned sufficient property could vote, an 1818 state law specifically denied them the right to vote. Only after the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870 could African Americans vote in Connecticut.

Many African Americans in Connecticut lived in cities, where they formed separate communities in poor neighborhoods and held low-paying jobs. Few could afford the property necessary to prosper as farmers; most in rural areas worked as field hands.

Asa Spalding (1757-1811) was born in Windham County, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale College in 1778. He studied law with Judge Adams in Litchfield, Connecticut, then settled in Norwich in 1782, where he practiced law. He received an A.M. degree from Harvard College in 1791. Shortly before his death, he declined to be a Republican candidate for governor of Connecticut. At the time of his death, he was one of the richest men in eastern Connecticut.

Benjamin Huntington Jr. (1736-1801) was born in Norwich in 1736, the son of Isaac Huntington, though he was referred to as Jr. after his uncle Benjamin Huntington (1736-1800), who was a graduate of Yale College and represented Connecticut in the Continental Congress and the First Federal Congress. Benjamin Huntington Jr. succeeded his father and uncle as clerk of the town of Norwich, serving from 1765 to 1801 (with a one-year gap in 1778-1779).

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8" x 6.5"