The Eight

The Lemmon Slave Case and the Fight for Freedom

Albert M. Rosenblatt

• Publisher: Excelsior Editions
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781438492643, 9781438492650
• eBook ISBN: 9781438492667
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The personal and legal struggle of eight enslaved people for freedom in New York in the period just before the Civil War.

Gold Winner of the 2023 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the History category

The Eight tells the story of Lemmon v. New York-or, as it's more popularly known, the Lemmon Slave Case. All but forgotten today, it was one of the most momentous civil rights cases in American history. There had been cases in which the enslaved had won their freedom after having resided in free states, but the Lemmon case was unique, posing the question of whether an enslaved person can win freedom by merely setting foot on New York soil-when brought there in the keep of an "owner." The case concerned the fates of eight enslaved people from Virginia, brought through New York in 1852 by their owners, Juliet and Jonathan Lemmon. The Eight were in court seeking, legally, to become people-to change their status under law from objects into human beings. The Eight encountered Louis Napoleon, the son of a slave, an abolitionist activist, and a "conductor" of the Underground Railroad, who took enormous risks to help others. He was part of an anti-slavery movement in which African-Americans played an integral role in the fight for freedom. The case was part of the broader judicial landscape at the time: If a law was morally repugnant but enshrined in the Constitution, what was the duty of the judge? Should there be, as some people advocated, a "higher law" that transcends the written law? These questions were at the heart of the Lemmon case. They were difficult and important ones in the 1850s-and, more than a century and a half later, we must still grapple with them today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Dramatis Personae
• Chapter 1 Life in Bath County, Virginia
• Chapter 2 From Virginia to New York
• Chapter 3 Rescue
• Chapter 4 At the Courthouse
• Chapter 5 We Wish to Plead Our Own Cause
• Chapter 6 Self-Help for the Slave Owner
• Chapter 7 Fugitives
• Chapter 8 The Court’s Ruling
• Chapter 9 Life, Liberty, or Property
• Chapter 10 The First Appeal
• Chapter 11 High Stakes
• Chapter 12 Privileges and Immunities
• Chapter 13 The Voice of Humanity
• Chapter 14 The Final Ruling
• Afterword
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• Back Cover