Priscilla Hemsley (b. 1815 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-51637
Petitioned for Freedom, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, 1815
Biography:
Juliana Hemsley was an infant mulatto slave who, together with her mother and two sisters, sucessfully petitioned the State of Maryland for their freedom. In 1815 her mother Henny's counsel William Carmichael petitioned the Queen Anne's County Court to release her family of bondage to George Walls of Kentucky. Henny claimed that she was "descended on the female line from a free woman named Susan" and, since slave status was passed matrinlineally, entitled her children to freedom.1 The case hinged on the testimony of witnesses Greenberry Griffin and John Denny. It was eventually brought to the Court of Appeals for the Eastern Shore in 1817 and sent back for retrial.
Greenberry Griffin gave testimony of how the elder Susan was illegally enslaved. In the weeks leading to the surrender of British forces at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, Griffin travelled with Captain James Sweat to the James and York rivers in Virginia. Following the surrender, Griffin saw Susan "selling cakes and beer without controul" at the Gosport Shipyard and thereafter repeatedly on the shore of the York River until Captain Sweat left the area.2 Several men took Susan aboard Sweat's vessel and sold her to him; she was a replacement for another black woman who was released because of her "cries and screams." Captain Sweat informed her that he would make her his wife. She protested the kidnapping and claimed she was a free woman and already married to a white man in Virginia.3 Although Griffin testified that he did not remember sharing this story with other persons, he admitted hearing others talk about it.4
A second witness named John Denny lived in the immediate neighborhood of Captain Sweat and, since Captain Sweat and his brother Bartus were deceased, testified to what the community knew of Susan. He recalled hearing Susan telling his mother that she was "free in Virginia and to have been stolen from thence by Captain Sweat."5 The defense objected to a followup question asking if Susan's kidnapping was common knowledge to the community. The court overruled the objection and allowed Denny to testify that it was the "reputation of the neighbourhood that...[Susan] was a free woman."6
The jurors Daniel C. Hopper, Vincent Barton, Thomas Richardson, Thomas Hewitt, Edward Sudler, Charles Downs, John Price, Thomas W. Hopper, James Massey, William Voss, and Samuel Smyth decided in Hemsley's favor and the judge ordered Walls to pay them $24.51 and two-thirds cents.7 Walls' counsel appealed the decision on the grounds that the judge 1) allowed John Denny to speak of the community's awareness of Susan's wrongful enslavement and 2) did not allow declarations by Susan's deceased owner John Gibson to be admitted as evidence.8 The Court of Appeals for the Eastern Shore met in June, 1817. They declared the Queen Anne's County Court "manifestly erred" with regard to the first exception, presumably John Denny's testimony, and reversed it; they did however affirm the lower court's judgment on the second exception, presumably the evidence of Susan's former owner John Gibson, claiming the lower court committed "no error...to permit the evidence to be given to the jury as stated."9 The court ordered a "new trial...in the same manner as if no trial had taken place or any appeal had been prosecuted." 10
A new trial with a different jury began in May, 1818. The court papers include a new bill of exception filed by Hemsley's counsel, William Carmichael. The exception transcript is difficult to read but it appears to include supplemental testimony from Greenberry Griffin. It states that Griffin later saw Susan again in a "piece of woods near Queens Town. That when she saw the witness she fled + the witness pursued her...[and] he found the woman to be the same woman whom he had seen on board of Sweat's vessel."11 Although this testimony seemed to strengthen Hemsley's case, Walls' counsel introduced the testimony "in order to prove from her own confessions that she was not free."12
The final judgment was not recorded however Priscilla was issued a Certificate of Freedom on May 13, 1836, a short time after Henny's certificate was recorded. Her emancipation date is given as May 1, 1818.13 She is described as being 21 years old, 5 feet tall, of "light complexion," bearing a scar on her forehead, a burn on her right ankle, and to have been born and raised in Queen Anne's County.14Footnotes -
2. Ibid., pg. 7
4. Ibid., pg. 8
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., pg. 5
10. Ibid.
13. QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY COURT (Certificates of Freedom) 1828-1837, pg. 219. 02/01/05/003 [MSA C1448-1]
14. Ibid.
Return to Priscilla Hemsley's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|