Second Daughter (15 page)

When we arrived at the court, Tapping Reeve greeted us. “Bett, it shouldn't be too long before we will be heard. The judge will hear arguments from the Ashleys' lawyer and from our side. You and Brom will sit up front with me. We will find a place in the back of the courtroom for your sister and your little girl. We are hoping that there will be enough people to serve on the jury and we will have no problem in the selection.”

“Why would there be a problem?” Bett asked, alarmed.

“The Ashleys are prominent, well known. Some men might be reluctant to serve on a case that involves them. There are some who might want jobs, others who might be involved in trade with them. But don't you worry. I'm sure we'll work things out all right.”

Little Bett and I were left in the back of the room on a hard bench. At the front of the room were two tables with chairs, one table on each side of the room. On the left were twelve chairs fenced in like a box. On the right side near the front wall were a table and chair raised up so that the person in the chair could be seen.

People, mostly men, gathered slowly. I heard them greeting each other outside, but as they entered the room, they became quiet. Some looked at me and Little Bett as if surprised, but they said nothing. An occasional cough was the only sound. What had happened to Bett and Brom? I wondered.

Suddenly a door opened, and Bett and Brom with lawyers Sedgwick and Reeve came into the room and sat at the table near the twelve seats. Then the master and mistress came in with their lawyers and sat on the opposite side. She wore a soft voile dress with small black-and-white dots, and a large white hat with bright red flowers, and red shoes. The master wore a white suit. There was a flutter of greetings in the room when they arrived. Soon a banging noise from a wooden mallet sounded and a booming voice said, “All rise!”

Little Bett and I stood with the others until a small man with a beaklike nose entered the room. He was wearing a long black robe and a white wig with big curls that almost covered his face. When he sat in the raised chair, we were asked to be seated.

Things began to happen right away. Lawyers Noble and Canfield called for a dismissal of the case on the grounds that “the said Brom and Bett, are and were at the time of the original writ, the legal Negro servants of the said John Ashley during their lives, and the said John Ashley is ready to verify, and hereof prays the judgment of this court, that the said suit may be abated.”

Lawyers Reeve and Sedgwick replied, “This suit should not be abated because Brom and Bett are not legal Negro servants or servants of John Ashley during their lives.”

“There seems to be enough evidence to warrant a full hearing of this case. Let us proceed,” the judge said.

Men were called from the audience and asked to give their names and tell what kind of work they did. Then Lawyer Sedgwick and one of Master Ashley's lawyers began to ask them questions. Were they property holders? “Do you feel that a person has the right to hold another in servitude?” Lawyer Sedgwick asked one man.

The man replied, “The Bible, the very word of God, says we have the right to hold those who are less than us in slavery, and according to that same Bible slaves are meant to obey their masters whether the masters are good or evil.”

Finally they had questioned about seventeen of the men in the room. Three without property were dismissed immediately. The lawyers talked to each other and then lawyer Canfield, for the Ashleys, and Sedgwick, for my sister, talked to the judge. The room was quiet, but the heated talk between the lawyers and the judge could not be heard. Then two more men, including the one who had said God intended for there to be masters and slaves, were told they were not needed for jury service.

When twelve men were finally settled in the jury box, the judge gave them their first instruction: Listen to both sides of the arguments in order to make a decision based on those arguments and not on their own opinions. Then the bailiff of the court stood with papers in hand and read a long statement about why the court was in session. I understood little of what he said except that the master had refused the orders of the court to release Bett and Brom because they were his servants for life. The court was to decide whether or not John Ashley had a claim on said Bett and Brom as his servants for life.

After the reading, the judge turned to the lawyers. “Are the plaintiffs ready to present evidence and witnesses?”

“We are, your honor,” Master Reeves said. He moved away from the table and stood between the jury and the judge. “We will be brief. John Ashley, a well-known citizen in this state, held Brom and Bett against their will in bondage without pay. We intend to prove that under the Massachusetts Constitution and under the Declaration of Independence of the United States, he has no legal right to hold said Brom and Bett.”

Then Master Noble stood. “Your honor, we will prove that John Ashley and his wife, Anna Ashley, are kind, caring master and mistress to their servants; that Judge John Ashley, whom even my opponent admits is an upstanding, law-abiding citizen, has the right to hold slaves as property, as do many outstanding citizens, such as our General Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, who helped write our noble Declaration of Independence.”

I looked at the twelve men in the jury box and wondered what they were thinking. Would enough of them think like Master Reeve? Or did they think, like Master Noble, that they had the right to keep us slaves forever?

Master Noble called Master Ashley to the stand and questioned him: How had he come to own us? Had he seen to it that we were well fed, clothed, and housed? Had he seen to it that we were changed from heathens to Christians? The master answered, “Yes, I have.” When Master Reeves said he had no questions, Master Noble said, “I call Mistress Anna Ashley.”

There was a stir in the crowd as she made her way to the stand. As always, when she was in public, she was confident and assured. She seemed not to notice anything around her, except once to raise her eyes to the ceiling. She mopped her brow, suffering from the heat. “Will you describe to the court your relationship with your servant, Bett?” her lawyer asked.

“Bett is like one in my family. She was born on my father's land and has been a servant of mine even before I married her master. We have never quarreled, and I have been nothing but kind to her.”

I was afraid I was going to start laughing, so I closed my ears and mind to her and held on to keep from being tossed out of the place. How could she sit there pretending that she was a good mistress? I looked at my sister, who sat upright and calm, and I wondered, if asked to disagree with the mistress, would she have the will to do so?

Master Reeves said he had no questions for the mistress and called Bett. I could tell that Bett was reluctant. He whispered something to her, and finally she came forward and sat in the seat where the mistress had sat. “Your honor,” Master Reeves said, “I would like to prove that the mistress Ashley is not the kind mistress she claims.” He then turned to the jury. “The issue here is not whether the Ashleys have been kind. The issue is, do they have the right to hold Bett and Brom as slaves for life?” He turned to Bett. “Has Mistress Ashley ever in any way abused you?”

My sister looked at the judge and then at Lawyer Reeves. She did not speak. The courtroom was hushed, waiting. Answer him! I wanted to say. Why didn't she tell them and show the ugly wound on her arm?

Bett looked at the mistress, who was staring Bett in the face. “Yes, Master Reeves, she is not the kind person she wants people to believe she is. I have been in her household many years and was never paid one pence. We work six days a week and sometimes on the seventh. But whether she is kind or not, the constitution says we have rights to our freedom.”

“No further questions,” Mr. Reeves said.

Master Noble stood and said, “Bett, you sit here well dressed, in good health, with nothing to even hint at your being anything but blessed to be a servant of the Ashleys.” There was applause and sounds of “Hear, hear!”

The judge pounded on his desk. “There must be order in this court. Continue, Mr. Noble.”

“You know your master and mistress have been good to you, haven't they, Bett?”

“I object,” Lawyer Reeve said. “Whether they were good to her is not the question here.”

“Objection sustained.”

“Your honor, my worthy opponent asked if she had been abused. May I rephrase the question? What proof can you give to this court of Mistress Ashley's abuse?” Lawyer Noble asked.

My sister looked at the mistress, then at the judge. She did not answer. Was she afraid, thinking What if we lost? What would the master and mistress do to us? I felt cold sweat rolling down my sides. In that room that had been almost unbearably warm, I became chilled.

Suddenly Bett squared her shoulders. Without saying a word, she rolled up her sleeve and bared the wound. It was still scarlet with the healing pulling the muscles tight, making the arm twist out of shape, limiting its range of movement. She held her arm so that all could see. There was a gasp in the audience.

Lawyer Noble rushed to the mistress. Lawyer Canfield joined him, and they whispered in conversation with her. The mistress lowered her head when her lawyer said, almost in a whisper, “I have no further questions.”

The judge asked if there were other witnesses and questions. Both sides said, “No, your honor.” Then the judge gave final instructions to the jury: “You have heard arguments in this case. You are bound by the law, only by the law, that has been presented here, not by pity and sympathy for either side. It is your duty to determine if the idea of slavery is not in keeping with our own conduct and with our constitution, and that, therefore, there can be no such thing as life servitude of a rational creature.” Then he said, “We'll hear your closing statements now.”

In his closing statement, Master Noble reminded the jury of Master Ashley's outstanding citizenship. “He is one who sits in judgment and knows the law. Would he break the laws that he so proudly administers? I say no, he would not.” He went on and on.

“Gentlemen of the jury, Master and Mistress Ashley have every right to hold on to their servants, as all of our history declares. The Ashleys along with other great men, Thomas Jefferson, our great General Washington, and many others, hold slaves. Are they not good law-abiding citizens? They know that these people are not capable of caring for themselves. If freed, how will they live? Will their freedom make them wards of the state, so that you and I will have to care for them? Let Master Ashley continue to keep his servants, for we all know he is a good kind master. I rest my case.”

The applause from the crowd was hammered down by the gavel in the judge's hand. I was so angry and upset that I missed the beginning of Lawyer Reeve's closing.

“… There are some things in our history that Mr. Noble did not dare talk about that have happened in this very state of Massachusetts and this Berkshire County. Many of you remember the meeting held in the town of Sheffield where even some of you approved without a single ‘nay' these words: ‘Resolved that Mankind in a State of Nature are equal, free and independent of each other, and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment of their lives, their liberty and their property.'

“One of those men who hold slaves, Thomas Jefferson, echoed
your
feelings in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' You continued that idea in your state constitution with a bill of rights.”

I was so happy when he told them that Bett was a midwife and Brom a herdsman, who could certainly take care of themselves. There was some laughter when he mentioned how long Bett and Brom had worked and the folly of the idea that they couldn't look after themselves. But the place got real quiet when he came to the end.

“I say that the city of Sheffield and Berkshire County, the first to have a meeting and a petition on ending slavery and on declaring in favor of independence from the king, is no place where a citizen can be called law abiding if he claims ownership of another human being.

“Gentlemen of the jury, make the Declaration of Independence and your state constitution meaningful in our lives now. Declare that no title to a slave is valid, and grant Brom and Bett their liberty so that they may pursue happiness. I rest my case.”

There was no applause, but the silence was complete. The judge waited; no one stirred. “The jury will now convene.” He called the bailiff, who escorted the jury to a room where they could decide the verdict.

What would happen now? I thought of the applause when Lawyer Noble said that Bett looked anything but mistreated. What if they agree with the master that he has a right to us as his property? I can't go back to that house. But where will I go?

In spite of my worry and fears, time did not drag, and before two hours had passed the bailiff announced that the session would begin again. “All rise.” The judge entered.

After we were all seated, the judge asked the jury foreman, “Have you reached a verdict?”

The foreman replied, “We have, Your Honor.”

My heartbeat could be seen in my chest and my hands were clammy with sweat. Oh, God, let them. Please let them say we're free.

“We find for the plaintiffs. The said Brom and Bett are not and were not legally Negro servants of him, the said John Ashley, during life. We further assess thirty shillings, lawful silver money damages.”

Did I hear right? I looked at the mistress. Her face was red with anger. Then I looked at my sister, who was smiling and embracing her lawyers. I wanted to join her and Brom up front to share that moment, but the judge was banging his gavel. “Order, order! I adjudge and determine in accordance with the jury's verdict that Brom and Bett are free. I accept the jury's recommendation that the Ashleys pay Brom and Bett thirty shillings damages. In addition, the court assesses the Ashleys the cost of this suit, five pounds, fourteen shillings, and four pence. This court is adjourned.”