Knox County Circuit Court record for Johnson vs. Emison with mention of Nero and Judy, 1835

Description:	Folder 4341 in Box 80 of Knox County Circuit Court records at the Knox County Public Library’s McGrady-Brockman House holds 13 documents in the case in which Peggy Johnson complains of Samuel Emison owing her five hundred dollars related to the sale of slaves or “servants” named Nero and Judy on April 7, 1818. Payment was to be made through a series of “sealed” bills that last of which was due five years from the date of the sale.There appears to be seven pleas in the barely legible document that center on whether Peggy Johnson had the right to sell Nero and Judy. Her right to sell them may hinge on one or two reasons: First, Nero and Judy may have served out their indentures and were actually free. Or second, did the case of Mary Bateman Clark in 1820 make void (and therefore worthless) all indentures of servitude. According to slave records (not included in this post, but available on Indiana Memory and held at the Knox County Public Library’s McGrady-Brockman House) Judy was registered as a slave of “indentured servant” to James Johnson (Peggy’s late husband in 1807) with an indenture to serve 18 years. That would’ve expired in 1825, the a decade before this case came to court. According to the 1807 slave record Judy had a four year-old son names Nero. It appears that the court sided with Emison, the defendant on pleas 1,2,3,4,9,10 and sided with Johnson on pleas 5,6,7. They returned to court with Emison as the plaintiff in what appears to be an appeal.
Origin:	1835
Contributor(s):	Nero; Graves, Nero; Judy; Emison, Samuel; Johnson, Peggy; Johnson, Margaret; Johnson, James; McClure, James
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/kcpl/id/46228
Collection:	Knox County Public Library
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Copyright:	No Copyright - United States
Geography:	Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana, United States
Subjects:	Black people -- America -- History African Americans -- History Black people -- History Slave records Slave labor Slavery Slaveholders Enslaved women Enslaved men Slavery -- Law and legislation Indentured servants Indiana -- Northwest Indiana -- History Vincennes (Ind.) Knox County (Ind.)

Further information on this record can be found at its source.