Edward Bates of Missouri, an eminent attorney and slaveholder, who later became President Abraham Lincoln's Attorney General, famously said during Bates' closing argument at the conclusion of his representation in the trial of then-slave, later author, Lucy Delaney, in her freedom suit, in St. Louis:
"Gentlemen of the jury, I am a slaveholder myself, but thanks to the Almighty God, I am above the base principle of holding anybody a slave that has as good a right to freedom as this girl has been proven to have; she was free before she was born; her mother was free,...and no free woman can give birth to a slave child, as it is direct violation of the laws of God and man!...[H]ere I rest this case, as I would not want any better evidence for one of my own children ...."
Encapsulated in this ironic drama of Lucy Delaney's freedom suit is the classic archetype of American history, wherein the advocate is often tainted by the very sin from which his client seeks extrication !
No one is perfect or pure. Edward Bates won Lucy Delaney's freedom from slavery, and extrication from jail, where she had been held for 17 months, until her case was called.
As did Lucy Delaney and Edward Bates in court in the 1840s, so now we their allegorical scions continue the campaign for freedom for the children of free mothers until today.
P. 156, FREEDOM SONGS: SUING FOR FREEDOM BEFORE DRED SCOTT (2014) by Lea Vandervelde
Monday, December 19, 2016
EDWARD BATES, LINCOLN'S ATTORNEY GENERAL
Edward Bates of Missouri, an eminent attorney and slaveholder, who later became President Abraham Lincoln's Attorney General, famously said during Bates' closing argument at the conclusion of his representation in the trial of then-slave, later author, Lucy Delaney, in her freedom suit, in St. Louis:
"Gentlemen of the jury, I am a slaveholder myself, but thanks to the Almighty God, I am above the base principle of holding anybody a slave that has as good a right to freedom as this girl has been proven to have; she was free before she was born; her mother was free,...and no free woman can give birth to a slave child, as it is direct violation of the laws of God and man!...[H]ere I rest this case, as I would not want any better evidence for one of my own children ...."
Encapsulated in this ironic drama of Lucy Delaney's freedom suit is the classic archetype of American history, wherein the advocate is often tainted by the very sin from which his client seeks extrication !
No one is perfect or pure. Edward Bates won Lucy Delaney's freedom from slavery, and extrication from jail, where she had been held for 17 months, until her case was called.
As did Lucy Delaney and Edward Bates in court in the 1840s, so now we their allegorical scions continue the campaign for freedom for the children of free mothers until today.
P. 156, FREEDOM SONGS: SUING FOR FREEDOM BEFORE DRED SCOTT (2014) by Lea Vandervelde