Writ of Habeas Corpus for Betsey, January 21, 1786

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court used writs of habeas corpus like this to order jail keepers to bring detained persons before the court. Chief Justice Thomas McKean, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, issued this writ of Habeas Corpus for “Bet a Negro woman,” who had to appear before the court on March 8, 1786. The digital version of this document is available online. Use the slider to go to pages 43 and 47.

Courtesy of Pennsylvania State Archives, Power Library.

Title: Writ of Habeas Corpus for Betsey, January 21, 1786
Date: 1786
Object Information: Paper document
Repository: Pennsylvania State Archives, Writs of Habeas Corpus for Black Slaves and Indentured Servants, 1784-1787, Roll 3403.

Description:
In 1786, 7-year-old Betsey [unidentified last name] was ordered to appear before Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas McKean. Her father, Cato, took her from her enslaver. Her enslaver demanded her return. These documents describe the circumstances of Betsey’s birth. Those few facts formed the central argument in a groundbreaking Pennsylvania Supreme Court case, Respublica v. Negroe Betsey (1789). This was the first test of the 1780 Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery's registration requirements. It also set a legal precedent for freedom seekers in the new nation’s earliest freedom suits.

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Page of the 1786 Writ of Habeas Corpus for Betsey

Click on the image below to see full-size version. Courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives, Power Library.

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TRANSCRIPT

Page 1
Pennsylvania Ss.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to ["Thomas Harrison" is crossed out] Robert Milligan Greeting We command you that the body of Bet a Negro woman in prison under your custody as it is said detained by whatsoever name the said Bet may be held charged in the [same?] under safe and secure conduct together with the day and cause of her [being?] taken and detained you have before the Honorable Thomas McKean Esquire Doctor of Laws Chief Justice of our Supreme Court at his Chambers in third street in the City of Philadelphia at ten o’clock of the forenoon of the Eighth day of March next, then and there to do and be subject to whatsoever our same Chief Justice shall then and there consider in that behalf and have you then there this Writ witness the Honorable Thomas McKean Esquire Doctor of Laws Chief Justice of our said Supreme Court at Philadelphia the twenty first day of January in the year of our Lord MDCCLXXXVI.
Edw Burd Prot [prothonotary?]
Second
Tho McKean

Page 2
[Dated June 29, 1786, on the opposite side]
It is agreed that the following be entered on the Habeas Corpus to bring up the Body of Negro Betsy and others and that the Truth of it be admitted. That the said Negro Betsey was born on the 22nd [November] 1779 of the body of Negro Poll then a Slave to Samuel Moore and that the said Negro Betsy was not registered ["agreeably to" is crossed out] under the Act for the gradual Abolition of Slavery. That the said Negro Betsy was born within this State and hath remained with the said Samuel within it from the time of her Birth and that the said Samuel Moore junior by order of the said Samuel Moore the elder took and detained the said Negro Betsy for the Cause aforesaid.