About 1858, for a "Valuable consideration," free black James Casey signed a deed to work for James R. Love for ninety-nine years. In 1863, Casey received an order to report to Asheville to be enrolled as "a conscript free negro." Believing he is not "liable to be conscribed," Casey seeks a writ of habeas corpus directing Lieutenant Thomas S. Robards to turn him over to the court and explain the cause of his "capture and detention." The related Supreme Court case report reveals that the Supreme Court of North Carolina considered that, in spite of the sale of his services for ninety-nine years, Casey remained a free man, and therefore was liable to conscription by the recent act of the Congress of the Confederate States. However, the judges pointed out, should the sale of his services amount to putting Casey back in bondage, then, as a slave, he could not sue in a court of law. In the court's words: "If he says, I am a free man, he abandons this point; if he says he is a slave, his declaration puts him out of court."
Result: Granted.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
