Douglas Polly: The Trial Of 1851

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This trial commemorates an important case which challenged slavery from 1851. One Mr. David Campbell owned them before selling them to a free black man. They were kidnapped and forced into slavery, eight free children from Ohio, Lawrence County. In fifty-one a civil dispute began by a General Assembly, lasting 162 years after their kidnapping. It took two life times before the Polly saw any recompense.
First Freed The Polly family was once a slave family in Kentucky owned by David Campbell. On January twentieth of 1849 Campbell and his wife sold the family to a man named Douglas Polly, an already freed black man, once slave to David Polly who set him free in his will and testament. He received one adult, Violet, and seven children – Dugel, fifteen, Dayton, thirteen, Harrison, ten, Nelson, eight, Aaron four, and two girls ages six and two. They were sold to Douglas so that he could transport them to Ohio and emancipate them. Creditors begin to claim it was all a ploy in order to defraud them and Douglas was to pay a debt of the former owner. He was force to pay claims from 1,500 dollars. David Campbell then brought up another sale for the same slaves with a man named Justice who paid one thousand dollars for said slaves. Justice was owed part of the slaves
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One child was just and infant born during the family’s emancipation in Ohio. Mr. Wilson needed to acquire an attorney and counsel for court and was awarded four of the children where the other four were declared free in 1853. The first four were then sold in Virginia before processes were even finished. One had died before the appeal but another one was born leaving the number of children still at four. These four slaves were then brought up once again in court during similar claims. This time the children were freed in Cabell county court. Wayne County was the defendants’