Published: 1833
Total Pages: 0
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The plaintiff Dowd's bill alleged that Davis was harbouring a mixed-race woman, Lydia Burnet, who had been bound to him, with four others, by the county court and who had escaped from his service. He gave in evidence the bill of indenture. The judge ruled that the bill was sufficiently defective as to be void, and that therefore Burnet could legitimately leave Dowd's service at her discretion. The plaintiff appealed to the Supreme Court, which outlined the laws relating to indentures, including the power of the courts to order the indenture until the age of 21 of freeborn mixed-race girls, and concluded that in order to remedy the deficiencies of the indenture Burnet or Davis should have applied to the courts. Verdict reversed; new trial.
