The Matson Slave Trial

The Matson Slave Trial. Looking for Lincoln. , Top Section , Dr. Hiram Rutherford was a key person involved in Abraham Lincoln’s famous slave case, the only instance in his career where Lincoln represented the rights of a slave owner. Robert Matson brought slaves from Kentucky to work his farm north of Independence each year until after the harvest. By doing so, Matson was taking advantage of a common loophole in Illinois law, which allowed slaves to be held here while in transit. In 1847, one of Matson’s slaves, Jane Bryant, argued with his housekeeper and future wife, Mary Corbin. Mary threatened to have Jane and her children sent south to be sold. Jane’s free husband, Anthony, learned of the threat and sought help from Gideon Ashmore and Hiram Rutherford of the village of Independence (now Oakland.) Rutherford and Ashmore concealed the runaways in Ashmore’s hotel while Matson brought suit against them for the loss of his property, hiring Usher Linder and Abraham Lincoln as his lawyers. Lincoln made his case that under the law, the runaways should be returned to Matson because he had publicly declared that they were not held permanently in Illinois, but were in the state for temporary labor., Lower Section , While the outcome of the Matson trial resulted in freedom for the Bryant family, Hiram Rutherford and Gideon Ashmore realized the Bryants couldn’t stay in Illinois. Black Codes written into the Illinois constitution discouraged free blacks from living in Illinois. Many abolitionists and other favored returning freed slaves to Africa including Abraham Lincoln, an early advocate of this movement. , With the help of Rutherford and Ashmore, and a donation from Lincoln’s law partner, William Herndon, money was secured to transport the Bryant family to Liberia, Africa, which was established as a home for freed American slaves. In 1848, Reverend S. S. Ball of the Colored Baptist Association of Illinois, traveled to Liberia to report on conditions there and found the Bryants in a “deplorable situation” and wishing to return to America, a task that he could not accomplish.