Enslaved People Named: Bacchus
Slaveowners: Benjamin Mell
Date of Case: 1820
[Begin Transcript]
[November Term 1820]
The State
Vs
Kepland } Indictment Larceny of a Slave
Mr. Solicitor General made the indictment, & introduced the following witnesses for the State.
- Amos Porter: About the 20th of June last, in Savannah, saw prisoner with a negro, who went by the name of Joe, with him, in a store. Witness asked where he belonged. Said he was going to Baltimore; thinks he said the negro belonged to his father. Prisoner quarrelled with a man there, & said if he did not behave, he would make his boy Joe tie him, & flog him. Witness was at work. Prisoner said he wanted work. Witness offered to give him four dollars of six he was to receive if the boy would assist in the job. This was on Monday. The day following finished the job. The prisoner then acknowledged that the negro did not belong to him. Witness said it was a critical job to have another man’s negro in his possession, & that he had better have nothing to do with him. Prisoner said he had got the negro at the Sand Hills & that he had given the negro his vest & hat for the negroe’s. While they were talking in this way, Hubbard the constable came along with the negro held & arrested the prisoner.
Prisoner said the negro belonged to the Sheriff of Liberty County, three or four days after witness first saw him – that he had met with him on the road to Darien near the Sand Hills. Witness thinks he saw the change of clothes was made for the purpose of concealment.
- B Mell Esqr. A negro Bacchus was owned by witness & was missed on the 19th June last. He came in on the 21[st] June last and witness gave him a ticket for the overseer to ?excuse? him that night. He never saw him after, until he was brought from Savannah jail. This was on the Sand Hills in Liberty County & negro was not in the habit of running away.
- John Hubbard: On the 26 June last in Savannah, wit[ness] was informed that a man with a strange negro had been at a certain shop under suspicious circumstances. He went there seized the negro & having tied him, went in search of the man, whom he met by the exchange in Savannah. This proved to be the prisoner. He fled but wit[ness] pursued & overtook him in a store now occupied by Gandry & Dufauve, then in an [three words]. Witness identifies the negro Bacchus now produced to him to be the same he then arrested.
Amos Porter, recalled. Also identifies the negro in like manner & says the prisoner to be him he came across the negro at the Sand Hills.
B. Mell recalled. Also identifies the negro, in like manner & swears that he is his property.
Verdict: We find the Defendant Guilty
M. Mara
Foreman
The Court pronounced the following sentence.
The State
Vs. George Kepland } Indict. Larceny
It is considered & ordered by the Court that the prisoner George Kepland be imprisoned in the penitentiary of this state at hard labor, for and during the term of four years.
And it is further ordered that the said George Kepland be forthwith committed to the custody of the Sheriff of the County of Liberty, and be by him under a suitable guard conveyed to & deposited in the penitentiary of this state within ten days from this date.
[End Transcript]
Source: Superior Court minutes, 1809-1821, Liberty County, Georgia, page 351-3; database with images, “Liberty County Superior Court Minutes 1809-1821,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-W9NV : accessed 10 Jul 2023), Family History Library Film 008628963, item 2 of 2, image 630-1 of 653.