Enslaved People Named: None
In April 1822, Charlton Hines sued Robert C. McConnell for slander, alleging that McConnell had told people that Hines had gotten from him a substance called ergot for the purpose of inducing an abortion in an undentified female “slave.” Hines charged that McConnell had injured his reputation with his neighbors and other citizens of Liberty County, who would no longer associate with him because they believed him to have inpregnated his female “slave” and to have driven his wife out of her mind.
Only the last pages of the court case were found and are transcribed below.
“…birth of a child, the issue of such adulterous & illicit intercourse had procured from him the said Robert C. Ergot for the purpose and with the the intent of administering the same to the said female slave, for the purpose and with the intent of producing abortion and the premature delivery of the child with which the said female slave was pregnant. And so the said persons in whose presence the said scandalous and malicious words aforesaid were uttered understood the said words, to wit in the County of Liberty aforesaid.
By [word] of the comitting of which said several premises by the said Robert C. Your petitioner hath been and is greatly injured in his aforesaid good name fame and credit, and brought into public scandal infamy and disgrace, with & amongst all his neighbours and other good and worthy citizens of this State, in so much that divers of those neighbours and Citizens to whom the innocence and integrity of your Petitioner in the said premises were unknown have or [word] of the speakers and committing of the said grievances from thence hitherto suspected and believed and still do suspect and believe your petitioner to have been guilty of the offenses and improper conduct imputed to him as aforesaid, & to have been and still to be guilty of having illicit and adulterous intercourse with his female slave and thereby and in consequence thereof to have rendered his wife of unsound mind; and to have purchased Ergot for the purpose of administering the same to his said female slave with the intent that it might produce abortion and the premature birth of a child with which the said female slave was pregnant, and have by [word] of the committing of the several grievances by the said Robert C. From thence hitherto, and still do refuse to have any acquaintance intercourse or discourse with your petitioner. And your Petitioner hath been and is by means of the premises otherwise greatly injured and damnified to wit in the County of Liberty aforesaid, to the damage of your petitioner ten thousand dollars. Wherefore your petitioner prays process may issue requiring the said Robert C. McConnell personally or by attorney to appear before the Superior Court to be held in and for the County of Liberty on the Eighth day of April next, then and there to answer your Petitioner on an action of Slander and so forth.
[Signed] Davies & Berrien
For Petr
Georgia Liberty Superior Court April Term 1822
Loose Papers in folders by surname, Liberty County Court of Ordinary, court record for Charlton Hines; digitized images with typewritten indexes, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99Q4-D8BN : accessed 19 Aug 2024), “Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990 -> Liberty -> Estate Records 1775-1892 Harris, Isaac-Hornby, Phillip, image 535-537 of 1188.