American Historical Ephemera & Photography, including African Americana

"Thos. Berry / Assault upon his negroes," [n.p.], [1846?]. 4pp, 8 x 13 in., bifolium. Attorney "H.W. Davis" outlines details of the assault by "Taylor & Webster" upon persons enslaved by Thomas Berry, and provides the arguments to be made supporting the illegality of their actions. Accompanying this letter is a manuscript note, likely in the hand of Thomas Berry, approx. 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 in., partly in ink and partly in pencil, which seems to describe a second incident in which Taylor and Webster came to Berry's home and again violently assaulted an enslaved man and woman.

According to Davis's letter, "Taylor & Webster entered your [Berry's] negro quarters under pretense of searching for a runaway negro, but there was no reason to presume that he was there. There were not acting as patrol; for the apprehension of runaway negroes is no part of their duty as patrols....No disturbance is alleged to have existed, no circumstance of suspicion appears, no assemblage of negroes was congregated there, none even of your own servants except those who occupied the house. / Under these circumstances the entry was unlawful." The letter then goes on to describe the event, including a struggle during which an enslaved man and woman were injured, and the enslaved man "raised an axe to strike." Davis further explains that the negro man's action in raising the axe in self-defense may still be punishable, but that "the injury to your rights and the violation of the public peace would still support the indictment [against Taylor & Webster]." An additional assault against Berry's coachmen is then discussed.

The manuscript note reads, in part: "Second visit when I was from Home / Then February 22nd Sunday Just before day James Webster James Barrot Ben Taylor came to annother Quarter with a double barrel gun Do. Pistol dirks sword and other weapons and did beat a man servant by the name of Jacob very much and cut his wife badly with a sword across the arms by this time my overseer came up and they threatened his life and continued late in the day searching for nothing but as soon as Webster entered the house he and Taylor commenced beating the Negroes with clubs...."