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COLORED PATRIOTS
of the
AMERICAN REVOLUTION,
with sketches of several
DISTINGUISHED COLORED PERSONS:
to which is added a brief survey of the
Condition and Prospects of Colored Americans.
By Wm. C. Nell,
with an introduction by
Harriet Beacher Stowe
Published
Boston:
Published by Robert R. Wallcut
1855.

CHAPTER III.

VERMONT.

SEVEN HUNDRED BRITISH SOLDIERS ESCORTED BY A COLORED PATRIOT - REV. LEMUEL HAYNES - JUDGE HARRINGTON'S ANTI-FUGITIVE-SLAVE-LAW DECISION.

     AUGUST 16th, 1777, the Green Mountain Boys, aided by troops from New Hampshire, and some few from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, under the command of Gen. Stark, captured the left wing of the British army near Bennington.  As soon as arrangements could be made, after the prisoners were all collected, - something more than seven hundred, - they were tied to a rope, one on each side.  The rope not being long enough, Gen. Stark called for more; when Mrs. Robinson, wife of Hon. Moses Robinson, said to the General, "I will take down the last bedstead in the house, and present the rope to you, on one condition.  When the prisoners are all tied to the rope, you shall permit my negro man to harness up my old mare, and hitch the rope to the whiffletree, mount the mare, and conduct the British and tory prisoners out of town."  The General willingly accepted Mrs. Robinson's proposition.  The negro mounted the mare, and thus conducted the left wing of the British army into Massachusetts, on their way to Boston.
     The General also addressed a similar letter to John Hancock, and again to the Provincial Congress, in which he stated that the foregoing were facts which were altogether incontrovertible.

     LEMUEL HAYNES was born in Hartford, Conn., July 18, 1753.  His father was an african, his mother, white.  It was his good fortune to fall into kind hands, and he enjoyed excellent advantages of education, both before and after the Revolution.  He ultimately became a ripe scholar, and, in 1804, received the honorary degree of A. M. from Middlebury College, Vt.  After completing a theological course of study, he preached in various places in Connecticut, until the year 1788, when he made a permanent settlement in West Rutland, Vt., and remained there thirty years, being one of the most popular preachers in the State.
     In 1805, Mr. Haynes preached his noted sermon from Gen. iii. 4, the fame of which, and his discussion with the venerable Hosea Ballou, was world-wide.
     He was no less distinguished for his patriotism than for his theological attainments.  He enlisted as a minute man in 1774, and became connected with the American army.  After the battle of Lexington, in 1775, he joined the army at Roxbury.  Two years after, he was a volunteer in the expedition to Ticonderoga, to stop the inroads of Burgoyne's Northern army.  His neighbors and friends often heard him describe his sufferings while engaged in that campaign.
     His social qualities were of a high order.  He was a somewhat eccentric man, very musical, and full of wit and anecdote, but serious and reverent when the occasion demanded.  He was a kind neighbor and a warm friend.  He lived to the age of 81, dying on the 28th of September, 1833.
     The opinion of Judge Harrington of Vermont, in the case of a person claimed as a fugitive slave, is probably familiar to most Abolitionists.  In answer to some inquiries with regard to the particulars of the case, by Hon. Samuel E. Sewell, of Massachusetts, the Hon. Dorastus Wooster, of Middlebury, Vt., says: -
     "The transaction to which you allude is somewhat an ancient one.  The case occurred before my time; but I have the history of it from the lips of an eye-witness, who was present at the time, - the Hon. Horatio Seymour, formerly a Senator from this State in Congress.  There was a person of color in Middlebury, who was claimed as a slave by his master, from the State of New York.  He was brought before two Justices of the Peace, and they decided to surrender him.  Loyal Case, Esq., counsel for the slave, brought him up, on the habeas corpus, to the Supreme Court, then in session, for his liberation.  The master brought forward documentary and other evidence to show his title to

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the slave.  Judge Harrington, who was then on the bench, gave the opinion of the Court.  He said that the evidence of title was good, as far as it went, but the chain had some of its links broken.  The evidence did not go far enough.  If the master could show a bill of sale, or grant from the Almighty, then his title to him would be complete: otherwise, it would not.  And as he had not shown such evidence, the Court refused to surrender him, and discharged him.  This is the opinion of the Court, as delivered by Judge Harrington, as well as can be recollected after such a lapse of time.  The transaction took place about the year 1807.  Judge Harrington is now dead.  He possessed a powerful mind, not fond of technicalities: had a strong sense of justice, and was a great friend to liberty."
     Two points in this case merit particular attention: -
     1. The decision was made only about seventeen years after the Constitution of the United States went into operation.
     2. It was the solemn and deliberate decision of the Supreme Court of Vermont, not the opinion of Judge Harrington alone.  As such, it becomes of great weight as a legal authority, and should be cited whenever a person, claimed as a fugitive slave, is brought before any Court.
 

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